I think I'll paint my gray stock on my 710 black and then it might qualify for "non-ugly" status, as the Savage apparently suffers from no such label as "ugly".

I looked at both the 710 and the Savage 110 packages when I bought my 710. The Savage struck out on a couple of things:
1) no detachable magazine
2) didn't like the "squared-off" stock of the 110 vs the more rounded 710 (on of those "fit" issues, don't you know!)

As for a 700 being a "bit more", unless you consider an additional $200 more (66%) for a Rem 700 over the 710, then it's significantly more. The cheapest 700 I could find was $450 without a scope. Tack on another $50 (minimum) for a scope, and we're easily in the $500+ range. That's a very minimal cost - most of you would probably cringe at paying only $50 for even a basic scope. I would expect most would be more inclined to the $100+ range for a scope, thus pushing the cost for a 700 & scope to almost double the price of a 710.

But, like somebody said....whatever floats your boat.