Taking Mini Pics - To Light Box or Not to Light Box?

For years I've considered a light box to be the best way to get great pictures. I've invested tens of dollars on light box setups. Recently I was experimenting with pictures and decided to try some without the light box. The results I got surprised me.

Here is my regular light box setup, with two lights on the sides and one overhead. The side ones could be a bit brighter, but the top one makes up for it. They are all daylight bulbs, which means the light the give off imitates natural light and natural colors. Other types of lights often have color tones to them that affect how your minis look (which can be used to great effect if intentional).

For my experiments I simply removed the light box, and kept everything the same. Obviously in this example pic I changed the backgrounds, but the comparisons I made between the results I did with a white background.

The pic on the left of the Dreadnought is without a light box. The pic on the left is with one. Otherwise the conditions are the same. The light box diffuses more light, reducing the shadows to almost non-existent, but it also makes the model dimmer. Maybe I could solve that with brighter lights, but I'm honestly not bothered by the bit of shadowing. I also noticed some other issues.

The above image is with a light box. I noticed the edges of the photo have some yellowing. Looking back and comparing my photos it did seem like the light box ones were a bit off color wise.

The differences here are pretty subtle, and both pictures turned out good. But light boxes cost money, take up a lot more space, and make the process of taking pictures slightly more of a hassle. Maybe not worth the bother for results that aren't really better (and in my case were slightly worse).