I can't speak for others but for me it's more a matter of holes in my channels. If I have to use 5 express units in these situations where I'm only using half of the channels on each unit then I have 5 eight channel holes in my sequence and in that case it would also cost me $50 for nothing.
That's kinda what I was thinking but just couldn't put into words. I'm so glad you expressed it in terms I never seemed to be able to do so myself.
On the other hand, I'll never have 512 channels that I'm using, so holes don't really matter that much to me.
I realized that the price difference would be small for a populated board, but perhaps a smaller enclosure, less power cords, and maybe some things else I hadn't thought about might actually push the savings closer to $20. To use the extra channels on the normal LE might require longer power cables to reach the place where the lights are located, so there's another savings. The cost per channel would be greater with smaller controllers, but the cost of using all channels on all boards may make the cost even out a little.
It's no big deal one way or another, but I'd like to hang an 8 channel controller on the frame of my 5 to 8 channel medium size tree, and that's what brought this all to mind.
Thanks for any thought you might have put into this, and, like I said, I'm OK with it if it never comes to fruition for whatever reasons.
steve