I definitely have long thought that the home studio was all about money.. However, I am not sure if he increasingly used the Wrecking Crew all that much less, did he? I mean Da-Da has them on it, right? I think most of it was already recorded and he got stuck on Heroes and Villains and Vegetables, but the rest was recorded. He just recorded less. There were those remakes of Wonderful and the final stab at Child... but other than a lot of vocals I think that most of it had already been done.
By the way, I listened to the Smile sessions chronologically last weekend and it really does present quite an intereting narrative.
Yeah, I am in the middle of making a playlist of TSS chronologically including other sessions from the boots. Getting excited about it.