I like John's logic.
I obsess over espresso, I chase it and manipulate it, pull it's worst and using average abilities try to get its best, I think about it, sometimes scheme about it and more often than not wonder what "it " is. Looking back I realize that sometimes staying out of the rabbit hole is the best choice.
I've pulled countless shots and there are times when the espresso just isn't working for me, this morning was a perfect example of un-great espresso. Granted I'm fairly critical (as is John) the coffee mojo was weakened because I'd tried a tweak in my roasting profile and it just isn't working out. We suffered the consequences this morning. I suspect 99% of the population would have been happy with the four-ouncers but we weren't. Of course a majority of the coffee population doesn't know there is a rabbit hole.
The advantage to my setup vs a super-auto would be that I can manipulate to a greater degree and try to make the coffee work. For the average coffee drinker that level of degree would be a detriment, I think.
Perhaps the best espresso machine advice for the casual coffee drinker is the one that points them to a system that is not the sports car of espresso machines but rather the finger is pointed at a reliably average performer that neither highlights the best of the coffee or the worst, it simply tastes like "good coffee" to them all the time - no matter how old the coffee is, how clean they keep the machine, how often it is calibrated, or how little they know about espresso. That ain't my machine, that's for sure and I'm not sure which one allows for glaring espresso mistakes, maybe it's super-auto's?
Until the day that we all own a "replicator" just like the one we've all see in Star Trek, where we can say Espresso and it magically assembles itself in front of us, it continues to be an individual path down multiple rabbit holes that we occasionally pop our heads out of to see what all the other coffee folks are drinking. The burning question for the replicator guy responsible for replicator profiles remains; when creating the exact same espresso for every man, woman and child he is left wondering... What's espresso supposed to taste like? Chicken or chocolate or spiced green cardamom with a hint of salted macadamia nuts and an underlying sweet double cream? Who gets to be Willie Wonka in the global espresso factory? Hopefully not me, I'll be too busy not using my replicator because I'm fussing around in the corner of my kitchen with a really old shiny block of metal, sometimes shaking my head and other times smiling.
