Own both...

There is ZERO comparison.

Dialed in, ANY model is the better value.

SWpro is for you if you are only concerned about theme or need to stay under 5400.

If money is not an issue for you then this is not even remotely a comparison.
If money is an issue then the choice is already made for you.

I would rather play in armagedon personally, but then again I like non-licensed themes with imagination and new storylines rather than 30year old storylines.

As far as gameplay, I think they will both be fun in the long term. I also put theme VERY low on my list of things to think about when buying a game for personal use.

no, I am speaking from the home perspective.

DI has much more to it and more in the game. Value perspective based on what each game has to physically offer. SW is a baren game with hardly any player interaction and imersion is based all on the iconic theme. DI is the opposite end of the spectrum for sure.

As for pay-off, I would love to find ANY game that can pay itself off in under 3 years. I think the days of 1 year payoff left in the 90s.

If you take the full equation of cost at start and then minus split of coin drop post taxes/upkeep minus resale value of the machine then I can guess it will be VERY close between the 2 games. 1 has iconic casual player theme. The other has bling that draws you in. Code will be the final answer. They will both do well the first 3 months. Then months 3-6 we will start to see the winner. By moth 12 it will be obvious.

I wont share any actual number, but I would be happy to tell you in 12 months time which one wins the equation. My gut tells me DI, but that will depend on how it holds for resale value as it is obviously the more expensive game. I can tell you from experience that I would be very gun shy on ever buying a Stern Premium for route in the future. We have tried that experiement and the PRO wins.

edit to add: the other less measurable but obvious for anyone operating is the coin drop impact on the neighboring games when bringing in something new. DI has a much bigger draw to a location that SW ever will (SW will be like GB and there will be 4-5 in our small town in a matter of months is my prediction). That draw of DI to the location means the neighboring games will see an increased drop also. In other words the coin drop of DI will actually have a longer reach.

you are not doing anything wrong. Different strokes for differnet folks.

Actually on second thought... if money is not an issue then you are doing something wrong. Buy them both dummy