I was very much in the same dilemma as you both about 8 weeks ago. I looked at Homestead, MTL, EA, RK, and others. I ended up ordering the EA 60" Wicked after I spoke with Travis. Now I am *ahem* patiently waiting for it to be delivered.
I struggled with jumping to the 60" vs. the 55" for the $$$ difference. Ultimately what pushed me to the 60" was a youtube video I watched where someone on a smaller tractor than mine was working the 55" and I saw flex in the lid. I just felt that having that middle hinge with my 50hp tractor would help. I want to buy once, and be done! The 55" worked great for the guy in the video, I don't mean to say otherwise.
I have nothing negative to add about any of the other brands I mentioned, I thought VERY hard about the Homestead Root Grapple, I even had it sitting in my "cart"... just never pulled the trigger, ultimately I thought the bottom tine design of the EA may be stronger than the Homestead. I could be completely wrong on that assumption, I only viewed each via pictures on the internet after all.
I also thought the RK Granite would be a very nice grapple, they recommend the G72 for my tractor, which is around 100lbs heavier than the Wicked 60", 540lbs RK/400lbs EA, and about the same price, $2,699.99 for the RK vs. $2,65.00 for the EA.
There seems to be a lot of tractor owners on here that swear by whatever brand they've bought, and I think that is great. Maybe I would have been happy with any of the others I mentioned, I really hope I'm happy with the EA 60". Did I mention I'm patiently waiting for it?!