I've never heard the term "love channel" before, but I absolutely cannot imagine riding a saddle without the cut out. DH bought me a really racy, cool saddle once without the cutout and I could barely do a 30 miler.

Universally, the Terry butterfly seems to be a good started saddle that most people like (though there's a bad review on the saddle page of it). For the beginner folks I coach for TNT, most usually try that and are happy with it.

I've got the terry zero myself. A bit lighter and narrower (men's saddle) but with the all important cut out.