ACNC is definitely more dressed up with visual flair on the playfield, so I could see where some would say that game blew them away more on first sight. But most of that budget went into lights and mechs on this game. One if the first things Charlie says in the video is Scott blew his budget on lights. Anyone can dress up their games with mods after the fact and tons of people love doing that.
As for the individual light vs. PCB I'm glad I can replace one light that goes bad rather then repair or replace a whole custom made board. Noone gives you the old William's boards with individual sockets anymore.
They have used those single light boards since TNA and have had little to now issue with them that I've seen.