Not all of the above is true IMHO.
First of all, catalyst, even presulfided, is paid on oxidic weight basis, so weight losses during in-situ activation are not relevant.
You may want to check the basis of the densities of the two cats, are both oxidic basis, are the measurement methods comparable? What about the void fractions, does one of the two give you a pressure drop advantage?
Then, know what the objective of your reactor: do you want to fill it with cheap cat for a low-severity service, you will want to take the cheapest per volume that does the job.
If you need the highest activity possible, ask your research lab to compare the iso-volume activities (the denser one is not necessarily more active) and see if the delta activity outweighs the delta price. Is troughput limited by this reactor's performance or by something else? Difference in expected lifetimes of both cats can be calculated from delta operating temperature (calculated from delta activity) versus max EOR temp assuming equal stability which may or may not be the case.
Yes it gets quite complicated if you want to do it right! Can't give you an easy recipe. Anyway, don't hesitate and make those cat vendors sweat for you, ask them for a design and compare the two.