I'm retired military and eligible for burial in Arlington National Cemetary. I grew up in NYC, spent the next 24 years living all over the world on military service, and then ended up in the Mid West for a second career. My now grown kids do not have anyplace that they call their "hometown". If I were to be buried here in IL it would be a hassle even for my kids to visit the grave. So I told my wife and kids that I wish to be cremated wherever it is that I die, then have the ashes interred at Arlington. After the briefest of times a grave becomes forgotten anyway, at most a few generations of family and then you become just a name and dates in a family Bible. So at least my ashes will be spent with fellow veterans and America's true heroes.
Not to be a downer but just the other day my older brother (just turned 85) and myself (80 years old) were talking about our grandfather on our father's side. When the two of us are gone there will not be a human being on Earth who knew that old man. Even the two of us have not visited his grave in many years. That fate awaits almost all of us, and to be fair, once you are in the ground and none of the living remember you alive, what's the difference if your grave is visited or not.
If there is life after death, and I certainly hope that there is (but I really doubt that anything continues once the body is cold) the long term consequences of where the body was buried, whole or as ashes, becomes even less important.
For me, one of the big advantages of burial or interment in a national cemetary is that the cost will be nothing or minimal to my family. I can't see wasting dollars that can serve the living to be wasted on one who has already passed on.
