Sorry for this thread getting totally derailed, it happens more than I'd like.

you're essentially right, KO and HiLo are very similar in effectiveness. The main reasons people use HiLo are:

1: People use it. Lots of beginner's resources use HiLo, lots of folks will assume you're using HiLo, if you want to work with someone else, odds are they use HiLo, etc.
2: It's older. It's been around since 1963, and it's become very popularized.

There may be some corner case benefits, like you say, balanced counts are slightly more accurate near the beginning of a shoe, things like that.

But at the end of the day, it doesn't much matter what count system you learn. Pick whichever makes sense to you, and learn it.