Is the APS-C DOF penalty all that important?

Sigh...I know a person can simply stop down, but what happens when you stop down? You said it, you lose the noise advantage. In this situation, you end up shooting a camera with less reach that costs much more than your average apsc. We all understand this is only during situations where a wider DOF is beneficial, but it is still a benefit. There are very few times when I am tracking action that I find myself wishing I had less DOF, especially predictive tracking. The saving grace for FF is they tend to have better AF systems, but this is also at a premium.

I shoot pentax, and when they finally release a FF I will likely jump on it, but I wish I could have it with that extra 1.5 of DOF