Hey Learn2shoot,
I don't know how to justify any of my stuff to my wife or you to yours. To tell the truth, I can't justify most of my stuff to myself. I have a lot of stuff I use little or rarely.
When it comes to why folks have more than one progressive press for metallic cartridges, I can at least claim innocent there; I only have one Hornady L&L progressive press, and I have had it for nearly a dozen years. However, I do have four single stage presses (one RockChucker, two RCBS Jrs. and an old massive Wells "C" press) and several Lyman 310 Nutcracker tools. I really only need one single stage press and shoulg get rid of the others.
In all honesty, I have never felt a need for multiple progressive metallic presses. The Hornady L&L is very easy to change dies, and I often do not use the L&L bushing function as it was designed. For those calibers where I do use the L&L bushings regularly, I usually only use the bushings on the sizing dies and maybe a neck belling die. I find I make too frequent changes to the bullet seating dies to ever put a bushing on one permanently. I also do not find changing the shell plate or changing from one size primer feed to another to be a problem. I never did buy the L&L to make die changes faster. My sole reason for buying the L&L was to make one completed round with each operation of the handle.
Loading shotshells is a different thing entirely for me. I have three Hornady/Pacific 366 progressive presses: 20, 16, and 12 Ga. You can actually change die sets on shotshell presses, but it is way beyond what I am willing to tolerate. It simply is not practical to change die sets on shotshell loaders whether they are progressive or single stage. In addition to my three 366s, I also have single stage MEC Sizemasters for 20, 16, and 12 Ga. Even with shotshells, I find it very helpful to have a single stage loader for special loads.
If I die before my wife, she is really going to be ticked off when she sees all the different presses and other stuff I have. Then again, I won't be there to hear it.
Best wishes,
Dave Wile