That is generally my opinion of multi-speed as well -- other than a drill press, when is anything other than "fast" used? But when I was cutting a small piece of weather stripping, I thought maybe slowing it down a tad would give me a bit more accuracy.
I went to HF this eve -- came home with the same one I already had.
While there -- I was looking over the "blue" var-speed version. Everything about it just seemed less polished. The off/on switch, the enclosure, etc. As noted earlier, with the accessories (scraper, 2 wood blades, and sanding pad) it would seem a good deal. But my 5 year old noticed a plug-in nearby and "daddy" wasted no time. When I plugged in the var-speed one, it seemed to hesitate.. then come up to speed after a few secs. Well, maybe that is a "soft-start" feature, or just a bad luck of the draw, but it seemed to indicate lesser quality than the "red", uni-speed, version I had just used yesterday. The uni-speed one seems perhaps to be the latest design, it "feels" a little better and at least in my case, ran better. For $20, I guess I'll stay with it for now.. unless I can come across a Dremel for $55 or so (overstock is out of stock at $79). It not already, check-out fitzallblades.com I've not ordered any yet, but their prices are 35% below even HF prices.