I know exactly what you are saying Doug and in certain circumstances bridge cameras can produce results equal to those of a DSLR, the main difference is that DSLR's are infinately far more adaptable to a huge range of shooting conditions, plus you can change the lens to suit the subject.
Just as an example, check these two images out, one was taken with a Fuji S7000 bridge camera and the other was taken with a Canon DSLR, without looking at the camera data on the image could you tell which was taken with which camera?
