I’m not saying its uber awesome and better than torrents. I agree with everything you just said.
Although I have seen things on newsgroups days before you see them on torrents.
I just like newsgroups because its a constant 2mbs here on my home connectin where as torrents tend to be hit or miss, a couple of the underground torrent sites I belong too tend to have fast seeders and I can hit 1-1.5mbs but never as stable as newsgroups.