I'm assuming those cultivated strains go directly from the lab to their intended destination, still fresh from nutrient agar (or whatever it may be) and living. My feeling is, that by the time everything reaches the shelf, bacterial conditions just aren't as ideal as the companies make them out to be. This is why there is, what I have gathered, so little success in using products that boast about the contents of bacteria. There must be some step in the chain of trade that dissociates the bacterial colonies from their ideal environment, therefore making the product completely useless. You can argue for SeaChem Stability with the bacteria in spore form (?), but I think that product is a load of rubbish.
In restoration projects, there must be a lot more caution and care in transporting those bacteria, no?
This is an interesting topic, but not the topic of this thread.
**Edit** One product I do stand by is BIO-Spira. It had to be kept refrigerated for the bacteria to remain alive. If even for a bit those bags of bacteria, held in a liquid nutrient medium, deviated from these ideal conditions, then you pretty much have a bag of liquid.