I don't own a Bose L1 or L2 system, but I have heard it once and we demo'd a similar setup for our church.

The OMB I heard using it did not impress me; no real dynamics. But the sound could be heard in every corner of the auditorium. When the sound company set up the Bose columns in church, the sound was simply amazing. I/we didn't choose to go that route because of two reasons - a) the speaker placement was visually and architecurally awkward, and b) I didn't know enough about the system at the time to have total confidence in it.

I'm sure the system works just fine for many users, expensive or not. Bose speaker systems have always been a different animal. If you don't like them, don't use them.