Balanced vs. unbalanced

The additional circuitry is a unity gain stage, which inverts the signal. Unity gain stages are easy to design and build with virtually no distortion or noise, so I wouldn't worry about that. The balanced interface is much more immune to noise pickup, and almost unaffected by wire characteristics (which make some single-ended interconnects so expensive).

On the other hand, especially for short runs, single-ended interconnects are fine. Only replace them if you experience a problem, or if the equipment you bought, for other reasons, happens to have balanced interfaces. (Or if you need status points among your audiophile friends).

a circuit path with fewer components

Yes that is true but the logic that says "simplification" or "purity" improves sound quality is actually a bit of a misnomer. Understandably, it appeals to our logic. To show that this is an audio "myth" - simply think of an old Edison cylinder or Victrola with not one electron between the needle and the resonating diaphragm....the "purist" mentality is actually pretty wooly but it makes great marketing brochures!

By the way, the noise immunity of balanced lines can be achieved using active circuitry only in the receiving end of the connection. The HI wire of the balanced connection carries the single-ended signal. The LO wire is simply connected to the single-ended return (usually ground) through a resistor of value equal to the output impedance of the active signal. The LO wire picks up the same noise as the signal wire, and the noise is cancelled by the differential input circuit of the receiver. Clever.