The Steelhead is not really more "complex" than the Lamm. It is more flexible and offers many more options. But all switching is done via high quality relays, so if you are paranoid about the extra circuitry, you can switch it out. Anyway, you buy what fills your needs, first and foremost, in my opinion. Or at least I do. For me, the fixed gain and loading (and especially the fixed amount of gain) afforded by the Lamm phono stage would be a hindrance to the use of a wide variety of cartridges of different types.