More or less the happy sense of being proved right. Since the Higgs is well-modeled and well-understood in theory, other than the value of its mass, we already have a rudimentary scientific understanding of what it does and how it works. But it's critically important that these theories, like the Standard Model that predicts the Higgs, be experimentally confirmed--though you are right that it would be far more earthshaking if it didn't appear.
It's just a model - finding higgs will add validity to that model as a useful tool. not finding it - invalidating that theory puts us back to the drawing board and/or focuses people on other theories. It's not the end or beginning of anything, just another step.
I want my time travel and anti-gravity and FTL drive, at consumer prices. I want to see dinosaurs and travel around the universe in the blink of an eye. Keep working science people.
