You've hit the nail on the head. It's the conundrum of solving today's problem vs. tomorrow's problem.
I'd be happy if we can establish (or not) that the ~$5/turnout wireless solution is an "appropriate" technology that works at all! That was hokie71's original question.
I was thinking we need to walk before we run. But to your point, if hokie71 wants to pony up $70 for the 15 channel system he found...and in the end only uses 6 channels as originally proposed...then we have a ~$10/turnout solution. Another one of those "first world" problems.