Although basically the same syntax, I prefer seeing them as two different languages. DBC has been proven, and I believe it was much more forgiving with code syntax and structure. 2D was a breeze and fairly straight-foward. As I have said before, I think this has more to do with the way directX 7 & prior seperated DirectDraw and Direct3D. DBpro can be finicky at times, and 2d sprites are actually flat 3D acclerated plains. But with that increase in speed comes some housekeeping and responsibilty. I found it more difficult moving from dbc to pro, because you get used to coding a certain way and when you move to pro it's hard to figure out what's wrong. Some patience, reading, asking questions, and reading posts can help make the transfer smoother.
If it's not going to break your bank, I think that pro is the best choice. It still has some kinks, but the support (especially as of late) has been incredible, and future plans are scheduled to enhance it at a rapid rate. I think it will take a few more months for the DBpro game submissions to get to a level that we have seen with DBC, and really I think that we will see some higher quality apps. This is not to suggest DBC is anything less than a great package. It's been proven to be capable of producing some really fun and fluid games. The way I see it, you will win either way.
~zen
