I have to say that there seems to be a certain skill to setting up an embroidery machine too. One person I know keeps telling me that her machine is broken because it stitches the first color of a built-in design right, sometimes even the first few, then it scoots off and puts the last color or maybe the last one she tries somewhere completely different. Yet somehow, if someone else sits at the machine and does it, it works. As a certified tech for that brand, I have nothing I can troubleshoot to fix the problem she's having and the mother company has no suggestion other than "try another pattern?" because there are no real diagnostics for that situation. I've sat with her while it stitches out a pattern and the machine behaves.
The same is true of computerized quilting machines. There's a skillset in setting things up to work like you want them to, especially for custom work. It's a different skill set and some people love that vs the "manual" method. Sometimes it's even predictable.
I'm a computer technician by training, you'd think I'd have a computer on my machine. I don't. I went completely the other way with sewing machines - strictly vintage or hand-guided.
I agree with Rodney's friend's definition though. Predictability does come once one has developed the skills to make the darn machine do what you want it to when you want it to.