That's the issue I ran into... was it worth it to spend $5k on my car or trade it, while it was still relatively new, and put the money towards an Si? You end up around the same whp but get the better transmission, suspension, brakes, etc....
A k-swap is way expensive. You have to swap the trans, motor, ecu, install a clutch, clutch pedal, all the lines, and so on.... it's hard enough to try and convert from AT to MT. Trust me I researched this stuff for the past 4 years with my car. It was very frustrating. I did think the SC route didn't look too bad though since it can run very well on all stock stuff.