I have to disagree with you on it coming down to quality and speed.  I have been offering quality and speed for over 20 years, however, I have lost client after client because some one did it cheaper. Not faster, not fewer mistakes, just cheaper.  I will tell you that in Virginia I charge $45.00 for a current owner and have been told by previously loyal clients that another abstractor is dong them for $25.00, and if I wanted to continue to receive work I had to do them for $20.00 (I declined).  This has been said to me by several different clients.  And I've said this before about Virginia.  Because of companies sending work overseas, abstractors have become so desperate for work they agree to lower their fee to $25.00 or even $20.00, and most all of them will NEVER admit this.  I know this for a fact because after 20 years in the industry I have true friends and some family that work at various title companies and banks and they have told me who is getting the work and how much they are charging, how they regularly turn the work in late and there's mistakes on almost every order .  It's not about the title companies providing a quality product; the banks are pressuring them for low bulk rate fees to get a big chunk of the banks orders. So the title companies have no choice but to go with the lowest bidder.  It's all about the bottom line. It's not about quality or speed or loyalty. It's all about the money. You say money isn't everything.  I say money is the ONLY thing.  

That being said, I've started to see a change.  Recently one of my biggest clients lost a big bank account, a bank that a relative of mine works at.  It was one of those title companies that pressured their abstractor to fees of $25.00 and $20.00.  The bank finally got tired of all the mistakes and pulled their account.  They're now paying another title company more money to use quality abstractors.  I can only hope that other banks are getting fed up with all the mistakes and follow suit.  I don't mind being proved wrong.