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I love both names as well and when I say them out loud, there's hardly any difference, like you noted. So, going by aesthetic alone, I'd choose Elena. I just think it looks prettier :-)

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Helena also has the probability of being pronounced 'hell-ehn-ah' or 'hell-ehn-uh' while Elena is pretty much going to be 'el-ayn-ah/uh' everywhere, and the latter is my prefered pronunciation.