After owning the pro for a year I tried a premium at MGC and felt right at home. I noticed the laser and apron lights the first time but started having a good game and completely forgot it was a premium. They play that much alike. The kickout from the left hole is nicer I guess, but not a big deal if you have your pro tweaked a little bit (if needed) so it doesn't shoot the ball into the sling.

I own a SST pro and ACDC premium and feel I made the right call on both.

The Pro has color-changing inserts for the 7 main insignia inserts as well. This is key for the missions, like you implied. What the premium has in addition is other color-changing inserts like the torpedoes and mission inserts in the middle. Not sure if they actually use different colors in there during the game, but the hues are different.