Yep, the "no hard drive" point is a factor. On the JVC everio, it had a 30gb hdd. Which would take upto 7hrs of fine quality footage (fine being very poor compared to full hd). Once the 7hrs is filmed.... thats it..... You cant slot in another drive halfway through your holiday. Although i guess there are much larger drives available.
To be honest, I originally chose the everio range because of the hard drive (just the picture quality was worse than my 6yr old handycam).
Whether it be a hard disc drive or sd-hc card, we all still have to get film to disc.
Panasonic do 16gb sd-hc cards, not sure if there are bigger available from other manufacturers.