I personally wanted the standard interior. The leather in the seats and doors does look pretty good, I couldn't care less for the stereo upgrade as I usually only listen to public radio (news) and the additional sound proofing is probably negligeable; however, most dealers have spec'd all their additional cars with Touring packs as it obviously adds to their profit margin so I took what I could get. The touring pack is also the only way to get an interior in a color other than black so that might be enough of a reason for most people to go for it. Just think of it this way: most normal car manufactures charge 1,200 to 2,500.00 just for a leather seat upgrade (MINI charges 1,250.00!, Porsche charges in the 3,000 range for partial leather!) and you don't get a better stereo or anything else with that, granted the Elise uses very little leather but I still feel that for the money the package from Lotus is a fair deal and you can't go wrong by going with or without it.
edit to say: also I must say that I'm extremelly happy with my color combo in the touring pack, the biscuit leather goes very well with most Elise colors and it definetelly adds a little bit of spark to such an understated color as Nightfall Blue.