The responses certainly prove that "one man's meat..." still applies!
For me, I used to love both disciplines - the close racing on short circuits, fairing bashing and all, and the sheer brilliance of seeing the very best of rider and machine taking on the challenge of the TT course.
Good close short-cicuit races did not need to have the top and/or most skillful riders to be exciting - in fact sometimes it was much more fun when the level of expertise was....let's say...not the very best!
However, when it comes to the Isle of Man, surely the enjoyment is/was in seeing who handled the section where you had chosen to watch the most skillfully - fastest through, under the most control - as any competition for position was only known from the radio commentary (unless you were a real geek with clipboard and stopwatches)! The TT is not a race, but a time-trial, and for me the result was almost secondary. The only exception to this was during the production races, which were massed start (in classes), and as I vividly remember from '73 could be very exciting to take part in, and hopefully to watch. It was...erm interesting to watch Mr Robb's leather-clad bum ahead, rather than be told by a sign-board that he was xx seconds or minutes ahead!
The biggest shame is, for me, the sameness - the same noise, look - across all the solo classes, where the biggest technical difference seems to be the colour of the electric-start button. This is by no means solely the fault of the TT organisers, but changes insisted on by the FIM to twins/six-speeds etc. in the attempt to cut costs. As to closeness of the races, perhaps they will be, and the range as to who will come out on top is wide, but a look back at the results from yesteryears will show that it was in reality not much different to the last few years - just more exciting and exotic.