I think that the marketing behind low-light performance is just that - marketing. The low light performance of any binocular (or scope, for that matter) is really only a concern to those who are going to hunt at night, and the difference between 32mm and 42mm is negligible. The differences in price aren't justified because like you said, it comes down to a matter of minutes of extra use. Serious night hunters and observers are going to go with 50-60-70mm objectives and often spring for gen3 or gen4 night vision.

Nice find on the 8x32s, they are a good binocular. I also prefer 8x over 10x for just about everything, the steadier image far outweighs the increase in magnification.