In my humble opinion it seems that the LEO token has been abandoned for quite a while while all the dev efforts focuses on polycub. I have the feeling that the previous tokens from the leofinance team are treated like 'experiments' (failed or not) while they keep searching for the perfect tokenomics.

On the other hand, the Splinterlands team have been releasing tokens with a lot of sense and all the ecosystem is receiving constant updates. SPL nodes have a big degree of utility, yield and liquidity, hence the price.

I (on a personal level) I also value liquidity an currently I have 5000$ in LEOM (virtual price) locked. I would prefer those 5000$ in HBD for example, and have it always available. (this is where the difference in price will happen, since a buyyer will want a discount to compensate the lack of liquidity).