So I swapped my 13 line <xsl:choose> conditional, with this
(condition logic slightly changed from my last post) :

<xsl:variable name="firstTableRows" 
select="channel[6 > id or id='P'] [6 > $n and $hasP] | 
channel[6 > id] [not(6 > $n)]"/>


Excellent. Thanks Dimitre for updating me with this syntax, 
if will defineately come in handy in the future too.

Roy