Mostly for the torque. If you look at dyno's from Comptech/Vortech/Rotrex chargers they make good Horsepower on the dyno but only at the very top end of the rev range. Even on my low boost greddy set up i was making far more power and torque than any of the chargers except for above 7000rpm where they really get spinning. Now i have gone for a more advanced turbo set up its not even close. Its a poor picture i snapped at the dyno but this is an all singing and dancing Rotrex at 14 psi vs Mase Engineering turbo kit at the same boost levels. The two pink lines are mine. This is WHP.
As you can see at no point in the entire rev range does the ROtrex run above the turbo. Good manifold and turbo matching means lag is very limited. In fact the turbo is nearly as smooth as the charger, so it retains that buzzy VTEC feel,its just faster.
Ive done 30k boosted so far (touching wood) with no engines troubles, transmissions get a hard life though. Go for an EMS with boost by gear and you can dial in the amount of spin you do or do not want in the lower gears so you can get the power down.
IIRC Mase is selling his kit with the 626? turbo for about 6k. That includes everthing though, turbo/manifold/intercooler/injectors/all pipework and oil lines and pre tuned AEM EMS. Its literally bolt 400whp out of the box. I went for the 5878 turbo as it spools quicker and flows a touch more.