We bought two pair at Swan's, two hard for Nan and me, two soft for Paul and Sally. Price differential was double. Since you're buying by the pound, shouldn't they have the same amount of meat? Or the water-logged soft shell offsets the meat? It's a given that the hard shells are a lot more work. But they do seem to have more meat and that meat has more texture. I remember buying them at Corea and the co-op guy seemed to approve of my choice of hard (for all four) that time.
Need to think more about the split/broil approach!