Let's not get too caught up in the Camaro "bang for your buck" mentality; it's not cheap in its segment as of now, and puts up performance the likes of $200,000+ cars. While that is a lot of bang for the buck, I don't like to see a car cheapened for what it is. It's a great car, it costs the part (American, decent build quality, muscle car).
As for the GT500, never. Though it may initially outperform the other cars in the class, I could never buy a Ford, and their brand notoriously makes garbage, though marketed otherwise. For those that it works out for, good on you. But for me, I couldn't do it. And for goodness sake please come up with a better design than a GT350 with some aero bits...
I'll admit at the drop of a hat that I'm biased towards the brands I like. But those biases usually line up with the better vehicle, luckily for me.