I bought a very inexpensive Brother machine because I was having trouble with my Pfaff and put it in the shop. I had to buy a walking foot for the Brother machine and you're right...it's priceless.
Since then, I've wandered back to my16 year old Pfaff Tiptronic 2020, which is very tired, but still sews ok, and it has a much better feed dog, along with a built in walking foot, so I'm happy to be using it again, at least until it gives up the ghost completely. lol