I do see 2.5 GbE NICs really making huge headway just within the past few years alone. Even lower end AMD and Intel motherboards are including 2.5 GbE ethernet

I do see 2.5 GbE NICs really making huge headway just within the past few years alone. Even lower end AMD and Intel motherboards are including 2.5 GbE ethernet ports by default these days, and that standard has the advantage of using the same copper RJ45 cabling, while giving you a theoretical 2.5x gain in speeds. For many users, even including myself, 2.5 GbE is a fantastic leap forward without having to dump money into fancier gear in order to properly take advantage of something faster like 10 GbE networking.