I hate the shut off feature for quilting, because I don't stand at the iron steadily while sewing. I sew a while, then press. It's a pain to come back to the iron to press and find it's off and you have to wait for it to heat back up. I turn the iron off when I'm done or leave the room for any length of time.
I bought a cheap Black and Decker because the bottom of the line models are the ones with auto shutoff.