I agree with the exception of me liking it.  
The hornet is sold on options more then Sound, its a good sound but anything can be called good. if you want the RSa sound with those options being a must then thats it.. 
as far as where it stands with the rest of my RSA amps I would say its in last place. the m-mod made it better but not much enough. to be honest I publicly said before i think the hornet was produced with a different goal then the other amps from RSA. it came because people wanted charging and gain switches on the sr-71 that was before it.  
I look at the portable amps and the home amps very differently from RSA, maybe i am biased in this view thinking portables are toy's and home amps are more serious. 
finding a used xp-7 with power supply can be had for $300-ish range and hr-2's have been had for $400-ish range lots of times before, at this price they are a contender and a nice contender.  
 
Remember one thing.. 
Why did you buy the hornet in the first place?