There are many major differences between figure and hockey blades. From the simple sharpener perspective, one of them is that there are no hockey blades (that I know of) that are side honed. I.E., that are the same width down and along the whole blade. None of my blades have been side-honed either. Which makes it a lot easier for a simple, relatively cheap tool to sharpen it. So it is relatively easy to do a good job with simple tools. If I remember right, tstop4me, your blade is side-honed, in a fairly complex manner.
Almost any tool requires time to master - including Pro-Filer. It isn't a complete test to try it for a few minutes, or even a few hours and give up. It took me years to figure out all the potential issues to be dealt with. Including
Pre-recording the initial profile shape.
Reversing the orientation of the skates every few strokes, to keep things symmetrical.
Checking how even and symmetrical the edges are, and correcting for it.
Using a polishing fluid (oil, or water, though water needs to be reapplied often, but potentially makes less of a mess in your bag) to get really clean edges.
Starting with the coarse stone if there is significant sharpening to be done, then finishing it with the fine stone.
Rotating the stone reasonably often.
Altering the gap to fit the thickness of your blades - a difficult to solve problem with some side-honed blades.
Lining it with tape to avoid scratching the sides (I used to oil the sides, but tape is better)
Looking at the edges under a microscope while I was learning, to see how they look.
And so on.
It would have taken a lot less time to master if someone had mentioned those things. The person who sold me my first Pro-Filer kit showed me the basics of using it - but didn't discuss any of those issues. And it would still have taken time to master.
It is possible a properly designed spring loaded clamp could solve the side-honed blade problem. The Berghman tool comes closer to that - you adjust the width of the gap with a wingnut, acting against springs which try to close the gap. You can find pictures at eBay -
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1311.R1.TR1.TRC0.A0.H0.Xberghman.TRS0&_nkw=berghman+skate+sharpener&_sacat=0 . That makes for a much closer fit gap. It can adjust the gap automatically for the width of the blade as you slide it along the blade, which would be desirable for some types of side honing - but it is a lot of spring pressure to fight if you use it that way. Perhaps if the sides of the gap were padded with compressible foam tape, instead of something like the scotch tape or athletic tape I've used... but you would have to do that carefully and symmetrically. I haven't tried it, since I don't have side-honed blades. While you are at it, you could replace the somewhat crumbly and coarse natural stones that those old Berghman tools used with something modern, synthetic, and also get a fine grain cylinder for the final sharpening. There are lots of placed to order abrasive cylindrical sharpening stones. You could even use the stones from a 1/2" ROH Pro-Filer kit, if you already have one. (I did try that.) It's not the ideal length, but that doesn't matter much.
There is also a lot of technique to the final deburring (or whatever) and hand-finishing with the flat stone, to create good, uniform edges. That's what produces the final edge, and it is hand work.
Professional grad pro shop sharp bench tool skate sharpening machines take a lot of time to master too. The really good sharpeners spend many years and tens of thousands of hours mastering the skills of controlling these machines. Hardly surprising - they are essentially machinists, and all master machinists spend years mastering their art. And they need to master the final hand finishing too.
In contrast, based only on the website, it looks like the Sparx tool would take far less time to master. Sure, some of the same things might apply - I'm sure a polishing fluid, and finishing with the fine stone right is needed to make the final edge. But there is no real hand guidance of the power tool, except for an initial centering of the blade, done using a good screw adjustment system, with a magnifying glass, which is a great idea, along with a cut depth adjustment. Sure, you can't correct for big problems, such as profile issues, and it will almost certainly gradually round off the sweet spot - so once in a while maybe you go to a first class professional.
But I still think you could go a lot simpler. The Berghmans were mostly designed right, even if the stones were the technology of the day, and the springs a bit strong for handling side honed blades. The problem is, all the patents are expired, and the company went out of business. I guess no one things they can make enough profit selling an old design. The pro-filers are a lot prettier - though maybe that can be fixed. Shorter stones too - 3" is too long for side honed blades whose thickness varies along the length. And they should have been available with other ROH's.
It's not surprising to me that figure blades can be charged more to sharpen. The blades are also more expensive, so if the sharpener messes up your blade (e.g., straightening sometimes breaks the blade), replacing it will be more expensive. Many hockey sharpeners have had a very bad experience. Due to their inexperience with figure blades, they mess up top end figure skating blades, and are then expected by the customer to replace the figure skating blades, which may cost $500-$800 at the high end.
Besides, the very best hockey sharpeners mostly don't work on a piecemeal basis, for the public. They work on salary, for a professional team, and probably earn pretty well. The main stated qualification of the best known hockey sharpener that I know of in my area who works for the general public is that he used to be an "assistant equipment manager" for The Washington Capitals" (an NHL professional hockey team). And just incidentally - he won't touch figure skating blades.