I'm a newish quilter and used to think exactly the same way. I quickly 'outgrew' my first Janome as the lack of 'needle down' drove me nuts. When I upgraded to a new Janome, it about paid for itself with the in-built thread cutter, lol. I can set the speed with the slider (with no foot control) which makes FMQ so easy - everything is controlled by your hands.
Having bought the first one in a half-price sale, I sold it for what I paid for it.
At a quilt show a few months ago, I saw a Pfaff Expression 4 demo. I was impressed not only by the throat space and IDT so I didn't need a walking foot, but the fact that there was an auto pivot feature. I can set it so that as soon as I stop sewing the presser foot lifts a little - a godsend for machine appliqué which I do a lot of.
I bought one from my local dealer a few months ago and the other week when I tried to FMQ on it for the first time, it skipped stitches. It's now back at the dealer and luckily I still have my Janome, which I take to class - the Pfaff is too big and heavy.
In short - until there's a machine that has
all the features you want, has a huge throat, built in dual feed, yet is still light and easy to carry, people will probably need different machines for different things.