You don't need to buy the Slim for 300 to use Kinect, you just have to buy the Kinect equipment yourself which is $150. Still a lot, but like SosolidClaws said:
Worth the Price, Revolutionary.
And it is! Now you have a Wii without the extra controllers, connected to your Xbox. Maybe they'll even have multiplayer and you dance around against your friends? With this new Kinect there's a LOT of stuff Microsoft can do, and a lot of stuff I'm sure they will do