As for the most bang for the buck, you may want to consider whether you are going to want to shell out the money for interchangable lenses on for the XL1. While the XL1's lens is nice and impressively large, I wouldn't consider it all that much more impressive than the VX2000's due to the fact that its stock "manual" zoom and focus rings still run on servo motors. A true manual XL1 lens will cost at least another ~$1000 on top of the camera price. This would be a fantastic combo if you're willing to shell out the cash (upwards of $4500)
Aside from the lens issue, the main advantage of the XL1 are the XLR audio inputs, though the next step up from the VX2000, the PD-150, will match the XL1 on that level for around $500 less.
Personally I find the XL1 to be unnessecarily front heavy especially if I'm not going to be able to afford taking advantage of the manual lens. WIth the comparable video and audio quality in a smaller package, I'd pick the PD-150.
Of course, over any of these models I'd choose the Panasonic DVX100 which not only offers a manual focus lens and XLR inputs, but also features 24p and can be found for about the same price as an XL1.