There is no trade off in perfomance, only in the thickness of your wallet. As for maintenance, be sure to always keep spare air fittings, air line, O-rings, and a small thing of grease (axle grease, petroleum jelly, whatever) with you. The O-rings do need replacing occaisonally and the grease really helps out with that, and the fittings and line are for that freak accident when you're trying to get out of the mud, spin your tires, and just happen to launch a rock just right to snap the fitting off of the diff housing.

Justin