Jilliane - You value the same things at ancestry.com as I do. Searching those records is a lightning-fast resource that my genealogically-inclined great grandfather would have marveled at. I've done more work in a decade than he and his two sons, working cooperatively, accomplished in half a century. It really is remarkable.
I do use other members' trees sometimes, though. People sometimes find applicable records which the search function misses; this has proven helpful again and again. Unsourced trees, or ones where the only source is another unsourced ancestry tree, are only good for provisional tips. I'll search on a parent or a spouse, especially if it's something I'm stuck on, to see if anything useful comes up. Most of the time it's a frustrating waste of time, but every so often, I'll hit pay dirt.
Mostly it's access to the records, but occasionally the other trees help, too.
It ain't cheap keeping something that big up and running, so I don't mind paying something for access.