Agreed. But, if you had to drive eight loads wouldn't you rather use a single slightly more expensive 8 bit driver IC instead of two of the 7 bit driver ICs? Mouser (a state-side distributor) shows the ULN2003 at approx. 45 cents and the ULN2803 at approx. 75 cents.
Other (expensive) sinking drivers to consider are the 8 bit cascadable serial-to-parallel sinking drivers ICs with a 3 pin interface (Data, Clock, and Strobe). These include the Micrel MIC5821/'5841, the Allegro A6821/'6841, the TPIC6C595, and others (example circuit using an MIC5821 below).
Mike
**broken link removed**