That does sound odd. When I saw the prototype at Woodland Hills, the Meade rep claimed that alignment takes only a couple of minutes. But then he also said only one version of the LS would be coming out. Then, a couple of months later, Meade announced two versions, one with ACF and the other a basic SCT.
-------------------- Celestron C4-R 102mm achromat
Celeston Nexstar 6SE SCT
Meade 80mm APO Triplet
Televue NP-101
Televue TV-85
Vixen A70Lf
Vixen A80Mf
William Optics 66mm Zenithstar Patriot
Celestron CG4 EQ mount
Orion Skyview Pro AZ mount
Vixen Portamount