Great mixer you've got. Your title for the post is "how far would you go."
To be honest, if it's a larger venue, and you need that many channels, I'd either get another L1C, or get a matched pair of FOH powered speakers like Yamaha DBR10s or QSC CP8. Especially if you ever start to do even bigger events still.
I got rid of my L1C because when playing large room at levels for active listeners it was fine, when pushed hard to be LOUD and in your face (to get someone's attention) it sounded really bad.
So that's my 2c. Get some FOH speakers with ample SPL (120+) to give you plenty of headroom.
In my experience, mixing and matching L and R channels to different sound sources can create gain staging issues to get things to match. I'm not saying it can't be done, but going with identical L/R side sound sources is much easier.
My one band uses 16 channels and I can tell you from experience, going through two powered speakers is way better than going through a single line array.
As a duo, each of you could buy one speaker. Then, at future gigs, use one for a main and another for a monitor.
For this one, I'd use the two for FOH set wide and your S1 Pro for a monitor.
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As my username suggests, huge fan of Yamaha products. Own many acoustic-electric models from 2009-present and a couple electric. Lots of PA too.
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