I had a feeling you may disagree, and I can't *truly* argue with you because I've not been to Kauai, but MLE, simply on its own merits (and not relative to LIH), is worth waiting for -- especially because your honeymoon is a once in a lifetime type of thing.
You don't need to honeymoon in the first 17 minutes of marriage... I certainly didn't. I waited until the right hotel room came along, for the right price, and I did the same with the airline availability, and when combined I went on a trip that I will never in a million years forget.
Yes, the distance is a bit further, but the fact that my wife and I were in EY F, in a suite with doors, for the first time, made those hours slip by. In fact, as I noted in my TR, we were upset the flight was *only* 14 hours. It truly did disappoint us both.
Then the F lounge in AUH, and the sea plane and the owb, and the tropical fish -- it amounted to an experience that, although it may have been "once in a lifetime", we are dying to replicate.
As you pointed out, LIH is only 11 hours away, is much easier to plan, and is likely cheaper -- all factors which militate to one's choosing it at a time when life may be a bit more hectic (like a year or two down the line).
/.02
