That's OK CP, I am suscriber to VF guide, have been since the beginning of the service. For $260 a year it is just too good a value.
Being a programmer I have no problem with turning the zipfiles into databases.
I was mostly interested in the results.
I don't use Excel for anything myself, but tried it out of curiosity, and the results I am interested in, will not be downloaded by web query, (well one could do it but ....)
One thing I have to say though, people spend a lot of time learning to use Excel because, initially, it gives a fast result, but in the end learning a proper programming language would be far more beneficial to them. Most of them are relative easy to learn now with built in functions and GUI, not like 20 years ago.
As far as I can see, Excel is just too restricted in handling any sizable datasource, and is woefully slow once you have a decent macro running.
But I suppose if they are happy with it, why not?
Good luck