Yet another alternative view:
Having not enough funds to pay for my roundtrip to the Phils, marriage, then spousal visa apps, and tickets for my fiancee and her child: we chose to go for the fiancee visa approach.
It worked out better and faster than I'd expected, application to receipt of visa only a month, without interview.
Maybe the long term cost of fiancee visa is more, but for us the most important issue was to be together, at a cost within our limited short-term budget.