The HD Lite gang seemed to be concerned with the resolution alone.
There is so much more to "HDTV" than just the resolution.
There is the color depth, the symbol rate, block size, the b-frame rate, motion compensation/estimation techniques at the encoder side, the transponder statistical multiplexing, and more. This is all done at the broadcasting/uplink center. It's always transcoded into something other than what the content source supplied--even with cable TV and FiOS.
A blocky, punchy, smeary picture at 1920x1080i can save more bandwidth than the same picture at whatever "HD Lite" was supposed to represent.