Eh, maybe but if all the basic systems are in place you've got a good start. Carb and carb manifold's have been around so long they are cheap to make. Figure a new carb and carb intake is about the cost of an EFI manifold. I think you could make the money back in the long run considering the more efficient operation (if your into that sort of thing
) Or if you like the ease of tunability. That to me is worth the extra cost. Once a carb is set-up doing the math for jet changes is easy to do, but instead of just cranking on a fpr, you gotta pull the bowls, take out the jets, blah. blah, blah.
Now that I think about it getting a Holley HP, a fuel pump, and intake are almost as much as an efi set-up probably only about 400 bucks shy.