I have been using the Creative Inspire 4.1 speakers for quite a while and I found its performance quite good. I use my system for gaming primarily and also watching movies/listening to music occasionally.
In my experience, I never raise the volume of the system to very high as it will be a disturbance to the others. So, I think that unless you are going to use them for Home Theater environment, etc, you can go for the 4.1 speakers. Like you said, the cost difference did not justify the improvement in performance for me...
Regarding wires, I found them satisfactory and they were sufficiently long (I keep my 4 speakers on the table around the monitor and the subwoofer on the floor on a short stool).
Arun