Personally, as an anime fan, I will weigh up the costs and benefits of buying a foreign release over a UK one on a per series basis. Some of the more important things I consider are how much I actually liked the series, the release date, price and what I actually get. This is probably going to be a boring wall of text to all of you, but:
For example, K-ON!! came out in America recently and the blu-rays were about £40 a pop each from UP1. K-ON! was DVD-only here and the sales didn't make the planned blu-ray boxset viable (and hell, I wonder if even licensing season 2 is viable?). So I purchased Sentai's blu-rays.
A Certain Magical Index is due out in America in December as DVD only. It will cost just over £60 to get both volumes from UP1 and being a limited edition, volume 1 will probably come in a fancy box. However, as MangaUK have expressed to me on Twitter that they would like to see if they could license the series, considering that it's DVD only in America, I'm holding back to see if MangaUK do announce it somewhere in the near future. Not willing to pay that much for a DVD.
Then we have Mardock Scramble: The First Compression. It was only released in the UK a month after the US release and was really competitively priced. I preferred Kazé's cover art and the few quid saving (iirc, it was less than £5, as PlanetAxel were still alive then), so I purchased Kazé's release. I just hope they can get The Second Combustion released close to the American January release, as I would prefer my releases to match.
With Blue Exorcist, I enjoyed the show, but didn't think it was great (and I hate the ending). I couldn't justify spending £120 (4x £30 volumes) for a sub-only DVD release, so I waited out on MangaUK's version. However, they cocked up the subtitles on volume 1, so I still haven't bought it (I would have otherwise). I'll probably wait for a MangaUK boxset with the English dub or something now. Durarara is in a similar boat; I liked the series, but I didn't buy Beez's sub-only release because at the time I could just watch it on Crunchyroll and I hear their subs had some issues. I have looked at the cool blu-ray release America is getting soon, but I think that's too expensive for me for a show that I merely thought was "good".
Puella Magi Madoka Magica on the other hand, is a show that I adore - I will easily rate it as my favourite TV show of all time. At the time of the US releases, we didn't even know if MangaUK would release the series on blu-ray (and Madoka looks amazing on blu-ray. The extras for AniplexUSA's Limited Edition releases made it more than worth it though - an average of 2 posters, a soundtrack CD, art cards and a booklet. Each volume ended up costing me around £70 each. I do not regret paying that much for the series and until HMV cocked up my order, I was going to buy the UK release too (instead, I cancelled and ordered a Kyoko figma).
Then we have Tiger & Bunny. I did look into importing the Japanese blu-rays, due to them having English subtitles. Hell no - too expensive. Then Viz Media announce a 19th February release date for the first 13 episodes; but they will most likely be just two discs in a standard amaray. Then we have KazéUK, who have included the Monthly Hero booklets with their planned 4-part release and the French ones look a hell of a lot nicer, so if the UK ones are like that, I'm definitely waiting out for KazéUK's release.
And lastly we have Shakugan no Shana Second. Now, America is getting this show on blu-ray - but frankly, the blu-rays look horrible. MVM have licensed this series, with the first part being due out in March (iirc) - the entire season is out in America in December. Also, RightStuf are offering an as-of-yet-unannounced free gift (although it's probably something small, the mystery gift is appealing). Also, no offence to MVM, but I'm generally not a fan of their front covers. Although they haven't released any mock-ups for Shana II yet, I really like the boxart of FUNimation's latest Shana releases. Also, FUNimation have the movie and Shakugan no Shana S coming out in January (which MVM have yet to announce a license for) and I would prefer my releases to match, so I'll be buying that show from America, even though it will cost me more.
So really, for me it's not about how much something costs, but it's about whether what I'm getting for that amount of money is worth it to me. AniplexUSA's pricing does make me think more carefully about buying and does rule out any blind buys (The Bakemonogatari set looks absolutely amazing, but I haven't seen the show, so I won't get it). I found their pricing for the Madoka Magica limited editions to be reasonable (almost half the cost of what I paid for them was import duty) and I would be willing to pay similar prices for other series'. Sure, overall, Madoka costs more than Bakemonogatari, but Madoka was spread over 6 months. Say if Sword Art Online was hypothetically released in one go for £200-300, I'd say no. If it was released in 4 6-7 episode sets (including a blu-ray release) for around the same price a Madoka's, with a sufficient amount of extras and a month or two apart from the other, I would consider buying them.
Sorry for boring y'all. Here's the tl:dr version: Consumers aren't very easy to predict. For some, things are on a series by series basis.
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