I agree with you. I am also convinced that the iPhone market is overcrowded and only high quality will survive now.

But did you realize that Unity already announced support for Android mobile phones? That is a quite new market and will get some small indies some good money, I am sure.

And this also shows how fast and innovative the Unity team is. So I think investing there is a good future investment. It probably will not be outdated anytime soon.

But I also understand that students might not have enough money to enjoy the pro edition. And they want of course all these shiny features.
But then it might be more interesting to check Ogre or Irrlicht to have a nice renderer for free.

And then there is still C4 for $350 with everything in (supporting 3 platforms). And there is Shiva supporting even more platforms.
And there is even the FPS Creator as a drag&drop tool.

It looks like there is something at the market for everybody, including lots of shaders, render-to-texture and real-time shadows.