The Technics SL1200/1210s are excellent turntables in their own right, but they are totally different beasts to the Projects and Regas of this world. I used belt driven decks for many years and had a few quite high end decks in my time - Linn LP12 and a couple of Well Tempered decks which are fantastic, but once I discovered Direct Drive turntables - and it was through an SL1200 MKII that I did this - there was no turning back for me. DD drives offer a level of pitch stability and rock solid imaging that I was never able to get from a belt driven deck. I bought the SL1200 MKII second hand as a project to play about with but it didn't take long before I got the bug to start making some modifications to it and once I'd got to a certain point, I ended up selling my Well Tempered Versalex as I was just enjoying music more on the Technics. Whilst having a good cartridge fitted makes a big difference, the single biggest improvement I made to my SL1200 was to re-wire the arm with better quality cable from the end of the headshell to the plugs going into my phono stage. I bought the re-wiring kit from KABUSA which cost around $90. I won't lie, it was a VERY fiddly job to do, but the improvement it brought in opening up the soundstage and tidying up and sweetening the high frequencies was more than worth it. It became a bit of a hobby to start making other modifications such as externalising the power supply and improving it, fitting better quality caps to the motor supply board, upgrading the platter bearing, deadening the platter, fitting better isolating feet and a better platter mat. All have brought worthwhile improvements but the arm rewire was by far the biggest jump.
If I was to start over again and was given a budget of around £1K for a turntable, I'd still take a Technics DD over anything else.