6, 7, or 8 round tournaments

I saw the poll on the main page about the number of appropriate rounds per tournament and it got me thinking. For a while I was really on board for the west coast 6/7 round model because it really made the tournament experience more enjoyable for both debater and coach. However, the more that i see this employed, it seems that tournaments have 7 prelims but still have 4 round per day because the first break round is held on day two. So there are less rounds for the majority of the participants and only a more humane schedue for those few teams in the semis and finals. I guess for the me the question is not as simple as 6 or 7 prelims etc. but rather how can we make tournaments more enjoyable for all participants. I was chatting with a firend recently about how ironic it is that people like to go to cool cities to have tournaments since you dont really get to see that city anyways. If you have to be on campus for pairings at 7:30 am and your not back to your hotel until 10pm (or later), what is the difference between Boston and Laramie, Chicago or Ogden, or Austin or Portales. Certainly there is a question of travel costs, but in my experience the money you save flying into a major metropolitin area, you end up losing on hotel and transportation costs. In the end, if the goal is to make tournametns more humane, it should be done for the majority of the participants, not just the few in late elims. And if this is the only way to make 6 or 7 round tournaments feasable then you might as well stick with 8 prelims.