With this solutions's BOM, I included the price of the board. Even including that, this solution is cheaper.
The female micro-USB port as power source was maintained in this solution, however the unused pads were tented. This made avoiding accidental shorts easier, but soldering a micro-USB port still requires great care.
2 power rails were used in this solution. Each LED had its own resistor which controlled its current. This took up more board space, but simplified the design and reduced the cost. Additionally, this solution runs cooler than the previous solution; it's difficult to say which element in the Alpha solution was causing the board to get warm, but this solution runs more effeciently.
The stalwart protocol I2C was again used for inter-integrated circuit communication.
Altium was used to design this board, as I had limited access to it as part of a club I was in at the time. A PDF of the schematic and PCB are provided though, as well as gerber files.