Agreed, it would be nice to see the results of the BCB without the algae scrubber. I think the BCB is the superior method however, the BCB has been a great compliment to the algae scrubber system. Water looks great. The two combined could be the "ultimate" filtration system. Or maybe it's not as good... I like the idea of the combined plant filtration with the bacterial BCB filtration.
Could be even closer to a "natural" eco system.
PS. I highly recommend a slow try and see approach to decreasing water changes if that is the route you take. I still have a couple of discuss improving from an extreme water change test (100% water changes every 5-8 months) I did with the algae scrubber to test it's limits. The pair with the wigglers in my last update video was actually in this test and I think you can notice they are not back to 100% yet. Wigglers are attached to parents though as of today. Many were sucked into the overflow but I would estimate there are still about 40-50. Super hard to count them!