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Not disputing most of what you said other than that an end fed halfwave is like half a dipole. That would be an end fed quarterwave. YES you need return currents however the much higher impedance of the halfwave means that the ground losses are not nearly as important as in the case of a quarterwave. You would not use a balun on an EFHW but rather a simple transformer or as I dislike it called, an Un-Un. Neither the coax feedline nor the EFHW is balanced so no need for a balun . If the transformer is properly made using large wire and the proper core material very little losses are introduced. In fact while measurable in a lab, they will never be seen on-air.  With a 49:1 transformer, the feedpoint impedance can vary greatly while still maintaining a relatively narrow excursion range on the low impedance side. This is why an EFHW can present a decent match on several bands even though the feedpoint impedance on the different bands may be quite different. It is all about ratios. As for a simple dipole being better, probably but only on the fundamental frequency. The EFHW will exhibit gain on the higher bands. If you want that with a dipole you need to introduce balanced feedline and a balun and we are back to introducing those losses you mentioned unless we go with balanced feedline all the way but we still need something to match the impedance. I have used just such a doublet antenna in the past and it worked decent.......but then again so does my EFHW. I will be MUCH happier next year however when the yagis go up and I can get rid of the wire antennas.....for the most part. I just need to take the tower down and convert it a tilt-over first. BIG job.