Maybe it's like with cars. Some people have great looking cars that run like garbage, and some have "garbage" looking cars, but they're reliable as can be.
If I had to pick one or the other for a machine I wasn't going to do a lot of restoration work on, I'll take a rough looking cabinet or machine that's safe and runs well any day vs the other way around!
Enjoy! That's one of the best machines Singer ever made, which is why it's often copied, and Singer made it for more than 100 years.