For my part, the ONLY theory is 108 and this makes 109 or 107 100% worthless.
Chanting and all that goes with it, etc., etc. makes it a religion. Having 108 parts, just makes it 108 and nothing more.
Chanting would be like a prayer, if you said it more than once, you didn't believe it and didn't trust that God heard you the first time.
For my use, I only purposed the 108 beads and not the monks religion. If they chose to put 109 beads on the string, they should have said so and they did not, they said there was 108, so indeed, they were sneaky!