I can buy a direto for £585 but I’m considering a Neo for £879, is the Neo worth the extra outlay?
Worth/value… entirely your call.
The Direto has native through-axle, bonus if you need that. It has some quirks with power/wattage zones in ERG, not a bonus. The Neo is still up there with the best of them, bonus. It also has some corner-case quirks, no real biggy.
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When you say quirks in the power zones can you elaborate?
Part of me knows the Direto will do what I need it to do but then I think if I’m going to upgrade what I have (bushido) I may as well go all the way and get the best.
IMHO it depeds, what will be the use of smart trainer… For Zwift - take NEO, it’s absolutely perfect.
For workouts with long high load interval i’d prefer something with real flywheel inertia, like Direto
or Kickr. NEO is a beast, with fastest on the market spiral of death.
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Direto: You may need to change from your big ring to your little ring to hit your wattage targets in ERG mode. If your power target is below the wattage at which your trainer can apply resistance, you hit the “resistance floor” (also referred to as the “wattage" or “power” floor) and you won’t feel resistance changes. Slowing the flywheel down by changing to an easier gear is sometimes required on the Direto when in ERG mode.
Neo: Under certain conditions the Neo resistance will back off for a fraction of a second at the bottom of each pedal stroke immediately after maximum torque. This is a noticeable anomaly when doing low speed “hill attacks”. It has been described over on the Tacx forums as the resistance becoming “mushy”. It’s not a show stopper, but it occurs.
If you’re after the best ‘training trainer’, imo that’s still the Lemond Revolution… however times have changed and riding simulators have taken over.
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This is related info about the “floor & ceiling” from another member:
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Shane, Tacx Flux 2 improved power resistance limit in „uphill” rides from 50kmh to 10kmh. This is very big (imvho massive) improvement of resistance floor. Have you ever estimate resistance floor for Neo?
And in my opinion Elite Direto is better choice in category power/money. It has brilliant power accuracy, big flywheel and look better, than Drivo 
And only horses like You can use limits diffs btw Neo and Direto. 
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I’m used to having to work with a wattage floor with my bushido. I’m generally using the little ring and 2 or 3 sprockets down from the top to allow me to hit the recovery power targets.
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I have a Direto which has seen a good amount of work and while I’ve seen people discuss the Wattage floor and I’ve seen the charts linked I haven’t found those charts to be accurate for me.
I generally have my TT bike on the turbo and using a straight chain line in the big ring means a 55-15 gearing. According to those Wattage floor charts recovering in that gearing at a cadence of 72 shouldn’t be possible at 114W but I can happily manage it. Assuming I’m reading the charts correctly I should either have had to have a cadence in the 50’s or be in the 19 cog to achieve that but it’s not the case.
I can certainly ‘break’ the Wattage floor deliberately as evidenced in the short breaks in the longer intervals but neither have I had any problem with a Wattage floor when I want to recover.
Personally I’ve never had to change gear in erg mode on the Direto but of course others may have different experiences.
To the original question - I have no experience of the Neo and I’m sure it’s great but I’ve no complaints with the Direto and it was money well spent 
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I use little ring, middle of the cassette on my Direto, and have no trouble with either a wattage floor or ceiling. Here’s a recent workout - the Direto hits the rest intervals and work intervals spot on.
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