I'm super cheap which is good because I'm on a tight budget anyway. I still maintain that all I need for quilting is a good strong straight stitch. For most of the last 30 years I've sewn on a vintage Remington (similar to Morse, post-war Japanese machines) and I have even quilted down a king sized quit on it (nothing fancy, just grids on a log cabin). While other people can do wonderful things with machine quilting on a vintage machine, I am not one of them! Plus I need a darning plate in order to disengage the feed dogs which I don't have, so everything I do is feed dog engaged and I just can't do the quilting I want to do.
But last year a friend of mine gave me a modern Bernina, a modern 820 it still goes for around 3k. That model didn't go over well in general and was shortly discontinued, but oh my goodness it is nice, I still don't use 99% of the features other than the straight stitch but I intend to try some things. Fact is though I gave up garment construction years ago and will most likely never make a buttonhole, but maybe I'll use some of the decorative stitches some time... still they could all go away and I would never miss them.
Friend gave it to me because she didn't click with it, bought a different Bernina after using this one for a couple of years -- she's a big Bernina fan, I think her current one is her 4th. I have failing vision and it has an automated threading feature, but even a threading assist like on a cheap Brother is a big help to me.
I've grown to really love the thread cutter. I'm no longer as covered with threads as I once was. I've done a couple of projects lately with partial seams and it was so sweet to not have to go back and clip all those partials!
I really like the knee pedal for the foot up/down. My friend never used this feature.
The foot pedal can be tapped on the bottom to leave the needle down or there is a button to press, I like to use the foot pedal. After sewing for so many decades it has taken me a bit not to reach for the big wheel on the right to do this but I'm getting used to it. Heck, 40-50 years later and sometimes I still want to reach for the carriage return when typing on the internet!
The surface is wonderfully bright, which again really helps my vision issues. It has a huge throat space and I have quilted several very different baby quilts trying the BSR (bernina stitch regulator) as well as the built in walking foot, and just plain foot. Very nice and easy to use.
I am currently watching Craig's List for a sewing table that I can fit the machine into. I do have the acrylic plate for an actual Bernina table -- my friend kept the table for her new machine but it wouldn't have packed well for a plane trip anyway
I usually just use the freearm when I am piecing and put on the large top for quilting because I don't want to be leaning on it and such.