Don't get me wrong, I'm not against having balanced inputs/outputs as an option, but rather the way that they are implemented in some cases. If the balancing circuitry can be easily bypassd, leaving a simpler and purer signal path, that is great and a win-win for everybody. If however a design is completely balanced from input to output, those people who are not interested in this feature are locked into the sonic penalty that this type of design can entail, which includes more noise from the added active electronics and a harsher distortion spectra.