I have a MAWL and a D2. They both perform really well.
The illumination of the MAWL is soooo clean. The ability to switch the illuminator between low, medium, high on the fly is really awesome. Indoors the low flood is completely awesome. Outdoors on high it punches. I do not notice it placing any undue weight on the right side of the rifle. The mounting is rock solid. The ergonomics to run it without a tape switch are great.
The D2 really has some punch too. It is slower because you have to manually focus the illuminator by rotating the bezel. That is fine for hunting, especially overwatch hunting, or hunting where you have a pretty good idea where the target will end up. It is just slower to change between functions than the MAWL is. The mount on mine is crapped out and I have to switch it to a home brew modified Larue. I can't get Steiner to email me back to save my life. But it's also over $1500 cheaper on the used market.
All said and done. When I am ready here shortly, I will be selling the D2 and buying another MAWL; unless something changes and someone comes out with something better. It's an incredibly intuitive system. People just get hung up on the price. It's priced that way because it's new, hangs with the full power units, and it's never been done before. I have a feeling if it was priced the same as the other units, the EE would be flooded as all get out with DBALs and Atpials.... It's just a better system.