I've seen the difference between balancing them correctly and not. I took the wheel to a place that balanced the wheel using the center hub, hub centric. Then I found out he had balanced it that way, and I took it to a place that could balance it using the lugs, lug centric. The difference was very substantial, i.e. several ounces off.
Consider that if you try to balance a lug centric wheel where the hub is too large to be centered on the adaptor, the weight will be way off because the wheel is spinning on an eccentric, not a circle.