Hi,
I personally also use LM, and I love it. But, there are certain things I do:
I actually create my own link index site, which means that I don’t use the one given by LM. This is so that I can link to multiple pages within a category from the index page. That way, all the linkspages should receive the same PR, and it doesn’t matter for my partners if they are listed on pg. 1 or 9, they still get the same link.
In addition, I also go out and search for partners myself.
I do agree that it’s a lazy man tool, but it saves me a lot of time.
Also, if you have several sites on which you use LM (5 or more), you should email their support for discount pricing. I currently have 11 accounts with them, and I think that I pay about $16 per account, which is still a lot, but better than $20 per month per account.
Hope this helps,
Thomas