Yoda, beautifully written sir! I really liked your synopsis, thank you for taking the time to write it up.
I would agree you can perform serious dueling with our blades. And guess what, if the blade gets damaged it was engineered to be easily repairable. All the expensive components are protected by the torque header wires. BTW I can fight with a shinai no problem with my blades.
So I would even go a step further with the analysis. If you happen to damage your blade, how repairable is it? Do you have to throw it all away, do you need new components, another LED, driver, etc? This is akin to asking "If I bought a car and had a mechanical problem with it, how much would it cost me to repair"? Would you want to get a car that couldnt be repaired at all? Or would you rather get a car that is easily repaired, something that even the customer could do if they had the knowledge and parts?
To me, that is just as important as the aforementioned question, but something not addressed until now.
Food for thought.
BTW, we are having the one-piece boards manufactured now! I hope to get them up on the website soon... :)