It's puzzling to me that these new recorders were made so as to require a sled to use L batteries when the 7 series was designed to use them without a sled. IMO, they should have been designed to use L batteries without a sled.
7 series is for professionals.
Mixpre is for dslr audio.
The sound great. But they also cost very little. Hence the trade offs.
I like having the option to run with the 8 AA mount for stealth or the L-battery mount for open taping. The only thing I wish Sound Devices had available would be a vertically mounted single L-battery mount but that's a minor nitpick given that the 2-battery mount will run with either one or two batteries mounted.