gobuchul wrote: Although Hughes does describe the method, in my view it is not detailed enough.
I have to disagree.
It's very clear, simple and is enough you need to know to get started.
John Palmer is very good but the level of detail on the chemistry etc is totally unnecessary for brewing good beer.
I did my first few brews just following the Greg Hughes book and produced some very good beer.
What does he miss?
You've been a bit too selective in your quoting there - I did recommend Hughes' book.
To be clearer, it's a good book with excellent recipes and you'll end up making beer and it'll probably be good. Palmer has more than 300 pages on the brewing process while Hughes has less than 70, so he clearly misses quite a lot.
A fairly basic example is he doesn't tell you what to do if your hops aren't the same AA % as stated in the recipe.
While your beer will be drinkable without this and other knowledge that could be gained from Palmer, the assumption is that the OP would like to go beyond drinkable and faithfully reproduce styles and consistently brew his own creations, which you can only do if you understand what is going on in more detail.
That said, Hughes book is more accessible and has lovely recipes well presented, hence my initial recommendation to buy both if possible.
