Quoted from Lermods:

What exactly does the ball lock do in the LE compared to the SE? Is it just a mechanical vs virtual lock like in Iron Maiden pro vs premium/le? I’ve read about stealing balls with the mechanical lock, but not the virtual. I have a deposit down on an LE, but am not thrilled with what the LE offers relative to the SE.
Can a shaker be added to a SE?
Shaker, glass and powder cost about $550 so it’s really this ball lock mech that becomes the difference.

Quoted from Lermods:

Wonder if people would have felt better if the price of the SE was $8k or $8500, making the gap to the LE appear smaller.

Quoted from MrBubbles:

As an owner of both Stern and JJP games I have to agree there is a night and day difference between build quality. While still quite fun, the Stern machines feel cheaply made. Whereas the JJP games feel like tanks and are rock solid. However, I've found that ALL of them have really annoying things that constantly go wrong with them and I continuously try to convince myself that's part of the charm of pinball.