About a year and a half ago I had the same choice to make. I was very familiar with vBulletin as it's the software in use at most forums where I participate and I've been an admin of a few. I knew what to expect with vBulletin.

I thought it worth exploriing other options and the one I was hoping would be the best of those options was bbPress. I still have high hopes for it, but then and now it's not on the same playing field as vBulletin. I think if the WordPress community can get around it then most of what you're wanting will find its way in. I do still have high hopes for it and plan on using it for another project.

However a year and a half ago I chose to go with vBulletin for the same reasons you mention. I downloaded version 4.0 a couple of weeks ago and want to play around with it before upgrading. I'll probably buy the license for the vBulletin publishing studio in time too.