Alright.. so I've boiled down my decision to these two bags and besides the price point I find them to be very similar in size and design and even look alike when both in black. The Litehaul was my original first choice but I decided I'm going to go with all the PD pouches(small/med/tech/wash) and since looking into the travel backpack more I really like it and would make more sense going all PD. One of the biggest things I like is being able to go from 30L to 45L since I will be taking a lot of short weekend trips over the next couple months but come summer I plan on either doing two two-week trips or a one monther so being able to fill'er up is appealing. I've heard mixed reviews on the compression buttons on the PD but I would only be using them when traveling on these short trips as a way to make the bag look smaller to pass for a personal item under the seat. Anyways, I guess I'm looking for a reason to not spend the extra $125 on the PDTBP, even though money isn't really a huge issue because I know this purchase will last me a long time.