I’ve worked in many professional and enthusiast situations with both audio and video signals. As to transferring a signal from point A to point B:

The properties of the cables are more important than the cost and much more important than hype. I think it sad when people spend $25 or more per foot to move a signal a few feet in their house when the professionals that recorded the signals in the first place used great-quality cables at $2.50 per foot or less to move a signal over even larger distances.

In a system where various types of signals pass among several pieces of equipment, there are various potential sources of signal interference. Changing from unbalanced short runs to balanced short runs in just one portion of the signal path will not eliminate problems of a more fundamental nature. If you have only one problem area and that problem is due to long unbalanced interconnect runs, then balanced runs will help. Otherwise, the benefits of balanced lines are offset by the inclusion of additional electronics in the signal path to deal with a balanced I/O situation, and you’ll still have to deal with the other problems, such a ground loops, if you have them.

If my power amp(s) were on the order of 10 feet from my pre/pro, I’d use good unbalanced cables. If that distance were on the order of 100 feet, I’d use balanced runs.

No matter which option you choose, use quality cables but don’t pay for hype.

IMHO, Outlaw included balanced connections on the 990 and 790 more because of what some consumers have been led to believe and are likely to buy at that price point rather than the actual audio engineering needs of the majority of users. If you are one of the rare users that would benefit from balanced lines, then by all means run balanced lines.