Of course the ideal way to keep your collection small would be to buy a single pair of for sure double hets but that isn't an option for most. Producing and keeping possible double het females is the only option for me but I've drawn the limit at 5 and will give the other 4 away to a friend with a similar project. They aren't a particularly valuable double het project and it's a lot of work and expense to raise up girls.

I do agree with your way of looking at them as low probability normals rather than long shot double hets. I think people are scared off the triple and quadruple het projects by looking at the glass as half empty and the long odds of producing a multi homozygous animal rather than the decreasing odds of producing normals.