Aerostars are great. In fact, they handle much better than any Commander. They have a lot of clever Ted Smith designs in them, and you can tell some of them evolved from his Commander thinking, like the fuel system, the gear etc. Very simple.
The downsides to the Aerostar is: It has a narrow cross section and thin wings (that's what makes it so fast) and the thin wings make it need more runway. The cabin is kinda snug for 2 big guys up front. It's tightly cowled and has a lot of systems that all need to work properly. With two turbos, two wastegates, two wastegate actuators, scavenge pumps etc on each engine, all in a tight space, it doesn't take much before something needs a little attention. For instance, you had to mouse milk the actuator arm on the wastegates every 50hrs, or else they'd stick as they got carbonated up. This would result in bootstrapping on descents from altitude.
So, basically, if you're willing to stay ahead of the maintenance on them, be pro-active with it, they're great planes that deliver unbeatable bang for the buck. Not only that, but a 601P leaned to within an inch of its life, is also a very economical plane. 25gal/hr doing 200kts is very good economy (the 700's will burn more). But if you don't want to do that or feel like you'd rather fly more, then a turbine will offer more dispatch reliability.
Selling the Aerostar and buying the TC was mainly something that came upon me by pure chance - I found a turbine I could afford! But besides being a Commander nut already, enabling this was a realisation - I see where aviation is going. And in a world with ever more Signature FBO rip offs, security checks, TSA nonsense, restrictions etc, an aircraft that can operate off the beaten path will become more and more valuable in the future. With a Commander, you could basically land at a grass field and do self serve, in an Aerostar, that becomes a little more problematic. This is where the Commanders shine. They're like 4x4 SUV's. Don't need no stinking runway.
So, it depends on your goals ultimately. You want bang for buck - Aerostar. You want dispatch reliability - turbine. You want a bush plane and a SUV - any Commander. And if you want speed to go with that - Turbine Commander.