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You got it right regarding the channel count.

A send parallels the signal from the channel strip to an effects loop and is returned on the 'send return' jack. It splits the signal in other words....

A lot of marketing hype calling them that.

Yamaha calls theirs a 24 channel 14 buss. It doesn't even have eight. They count all the sends, the stereo buss, and anything else they can think of into...

Not enough channels. That's not a true 12 channel board. Half the inputs are stereo and leaves you with only six balanced mic inputs.

Peavey has been building road worthy equipment for decades. Mostly powered mixers for small and medium size bands. Their stuff is not high end but it always gets the job done and lasts forever.
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As a basic consideration, figure out how many channels you think you need and double it.

You can never have too many channels or too many sends.