I'm moving this to Hot Topics.
Last night I was awake (wonder why) and was expecting Robert to fall back on this hackneyed debate. You are wrong, but you won't know you're wrong until you actually find a good deal on a machine that you say you don't need or want.
Reading the countless threads on other sites, like HomeBarista, there are people too numerous to count who made the move from PID'd this' and PID'd thats that have all the mods and tuning capability you could want, up to machines that were built that way with an inherent design. And every one of them is glad they did, without looking back.
Are these people all nuts? Are they all too proud to admit they spent $2K they didn't have too?
I'm glad you are truly happy with the results you get from your home-built hot rod, I really am. I want to bookmark this thread and come back to it if/when you buy that Speedster or Synesso Cyncra. We'll talk then.
I don't feel I'm being argumentative and don't intend to sound like it. But then maybe I should because you probably started the tread to get an argument going. I actually hope the thread dies before long; we've been around this mountain often enough.