How many modeling tutorials did you read in your life time?

You can also look into the handbook of Modo, Lightwave, XSI, Blender and you will be impressed of the features, the structure, the power.

Max is old and some other tools are better. You can do better modeling in Modo. You can add details better in Modo, ZBrush, Mudbox. You cannot paint in 3d except you are using Modo or Bodypaint.

Do you see the point? Max is getting old, it was good 10 years ago. And it still is good for standard polygon modeling and rendering. But there are a lot of areas where it lacks.
With this in mind, it is too expensive. You can get similar modeling, animating and rendering tools (like Lightwave) for a fraction of this price or even for free (Blender, Truespace).