It's all about time v. money. Others can probably provide more accurate current information, but in prior years I have spent far too much time in traffic on I-25 crawling through Denver; at times, taking E470 around would likely have cut as much as hour off the trip.

I don't know exactly how the license plate billing works with out of state licenses. I suppose they still send a bill to the address associated with your license. Though you could probably go online to pay it.