Depends on the machine, depends a bit on personal preference, but the thing most will agree on is almost all the pros are really good and play great. Usually you get your 2k worth I'm a premium, but the pros play very similar - sometimes even better, just missing some toys or a modified shot.

Rush for instance - great game, and plays almost identical either way. Mando I actually prefer pro (not a huge fan either way, YMMV). GZ premiums is awesome and the toys are worth the money by a mile, but I had a pro for 6m before upgrading and it was absolutely awesome.

LEs used to make a kind of sense; you could almost always sell them at any point for what you paid if not more. Makes for low risk if you don't like it, or even had a financial need down the road. Lotta folks on distro lists move one LE they aren't in love with to fund the next.

With the Bond price jump, not sure that's viable going forward though. Bond is grail for me, so I sucked it up and ordered an LE...Hard sell at practically the price of two pros, even when you're crazy for the theme (and the LE does look sweet). The widening pro/premium price gap makes it harder to justify the premium on some games too. I had a Rush premium for a while and loved it, may have another - but if there's three grand dif I'll probably pick up a pro if I do.

Pros are good for pinball for two reasons:

1. They are better for operators, hands down. Fun experience, faster ROI, much less maintenance. They keep more pinball in the wild, which is good for pinball. There's a reason you see tons of stern pros and older games for every Premium or JJP you run into.

2. They allow a lower entry point for home users. I mean, at today's prices the barrier may be too high as is, but if the only way to get your first new game was to pay 10k+ for a premium or JJP, that still cuts a lot more people out.

Stern is trying to make money, not sell to you as cheap as possible because they're good guys, but they aren't idiots - there's a limit, and if they push prices too high they'll ultimately make less. They raised pros $100 for next year - regardless of how absurd you think 7k is for a pro, 7k will absolutely not make as much PROFIT as 6.9k did last year. They're making it up by making more on the premiums and LEs, and as long as they keep making really good pros that push the hobby forward, I'm down with subsidizing Pros if I want the bells and whistles, and am fortunate enough to be able to afford them.