Many people start with one of the easier-to-install distributions like Redhat or Mandrake. Debian is definitely harder to get going with, mostly because of the somewhat unfriendly front-end to the package manager (dselect, which you can do without).
However, the payoff with Debian is definitely easier maintenance, upgrades, and much better regression testing. The latter tends to mean that you might have to wait a few more months for the latest and greatest to make it through testing. But if you're running a production system, you care about stability, not being a beta-tester.
Note that there is nothing to stop you from installing RPMs on a Debian system using the "alien" tool, but since RPMs don't have to observer Debian policies, you can end up with files in places a normal Debian person would not put them.
