Andy, another great electrical question (they draw the most responses). In a nutshell and for most cases (my short answer) YOU ARE CORRECT. Any time I attended NEC Seminars and other training and in my years designing power distribution systems BALANCING LOADS AMONG DIFFERENT PHASES WAS A MAJOR DESIGN CRITERIA. Since the two legs in a 120/240 Volt Single Phase Three Wire service are 180 out of phase from the other, if BOTH legs are drawing the same current NEUTRAL CURRENT IS ZERO. Anytime current is carried in a conductor there are I Squared R Heat Energy losses, so if there's no current those are avoided.
THAT BEING SAID there's more to the story!! While the above holds true for resistive loads, if the loads were inductive and if the inductance isn't the same on both legs the circuits may not actually be quite "perfectly" balanced. When I considered utilizing what are referred to in the trade if I recall correctly "Multi Wire Branch Circuits" (single common Neutral for two legs) if there were complex multiple (never the same) highly inductive loads I was trained to avoid their use.
All in all and even though what you spoke of sure will "work" and your basic premise (if loads are balanced Neutral current is zero) is true, WHEN DESIGNING MOTOR CONTROL BRANCH CIRCUITS in our shop and in the training I received multi wire branch circuits where a common Neutral was used for two legs wasn't favored.
But don't let this discourage you, a couple small motor loads isn't all that much and any such resulting minor mis matches isn't gonna break the grid lol...........What I was talking about was bigger and more complex power distribution NOT a couple small motors in a shop.
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