I got my longarm five years ago. I bought a Nolting 24 2ISKN. I tried our every brand on the market at the time. and I just felt that the Nolting was best for me. It does have a stitch regulator, but I don't use it very often. My table is 12 feet long. I chose the Nolting because of its reputation for reliability and ease of use and because it is manufactured in America. I did buy it with the intention of doing customer quilts and I started doing that about a year after I bought the machine.
I started with the original HandiQuilter frame and an old Pfaff sewing machine and outgrew that set-up in about two months. I sold that and bought the Super Quilter frame and used my old Juki on it. I outgrew that in about six months. Bless my husband's heart, he suggested that maybe I get a big long arm. In retrospect, I wish I would have had the confidence to just buy the Nolting right away instead of all the step ups. I would have saved a bunch of bucks. When I finally agreed to get the big machine, it took me about six months to really make the committment. I don't regret it a bit. I was able to quilt seven quilts last week and I enjoyed every minute of the quilting.
I hope this anwers your questions.