That's been the reaction of most people. Too much money. For the asking price, it would have to deliver truly outstanding "no excuses" for anything image quality, and then some. If it was priced $100-150 cheaper and was f/4.5 at the long end rather than f/5.6 I think a lot of people would change their minds.
For the most part I never need VR, but I could commonly use some extra speed either for selective focus or for low light. So in this range I'd probably opt for an 18-70 f/3.5-4.5 instead which is about as long and 2/3rds of a stop faster at the long end.