I have to say that this has been very educational... and very confusing... all at the same time. Thanks for the information on Calibre.
First, the obvious solution to this whole debacle is rather simple: buy a Kindle and buy a Nook (or equivalent). It may not be the cheapest solution, but it certainly deals with the DRM issue.
Secondly, regarding the price of ebooks vs paperbacks, I'll give a couple of examples that I referred to earlier.
B&N paperback: (earlier today there was no sale)
B&N Nook:
Amazon.com book and Kindle (option below the paperback):