In case you missed it, Claymores Zcash is out. Looking at 50sols on a 470. Haven't found a 480.
Are people so excited about the Claymore Zcash miner because it supports Windows? My SILENTARMY Zcash miner is as fast as (if not a hair faster) than Claymore. And open source. And zero dev fee.
Maybe I should prioritize Windows support higher?
I would say this is more of big/bigger miners vs small miners.
I know plenty of bigger miners that use Windows. There is no reason to use Nix in this scenario. People just like thinking Nix is always superior, which definitely isn't the case, especially when it comes to mining... For instance monitoring, tweaking, troubleshooting, and recovery.
This is your opinion. Mine is different and I have many reasons for it.
The solution to the problem is being able to run both... or write your own miners like I do.