I love love love love my Ellisimo. I bought it 10 years ago and have never had any problems with it, I love the embroidery feature, what fun it is to create the beautiful works of art. I use many different stitches on this wonderful work horse. Its had several upgrades to an Ellisimo II plus. A camera feature is wonderful on the embroidery that is done. I've pieced and quilted hours on this beautiful machine.
I also have two machines from my mom that I use constantly. One is in a blonde cabinet and is a 1950 something singer. I do a lot of scrap quilts with this one. Beautiful stitching. Another is a portable 1960 plus Viking Husqvarna that I take to classes or retreats. It's an absolutely great machine.
I had a Kenmore that was a complete lemon, used it for making kids clothes when it worked, also a machine that cost me $500 30 years ago that was supposed to be great and wonderful it was not. Gave it away with warnings. Also I had another one that was very frustrating to sew on. Gave that away too and suggested they just get rid of it.
I quilted and sewed with a portable garage sale special costing $25 for years which sat on a card table in a corner. A wonderful find and a beautiful little number. Can't remember what kind it was. I wore it out. Loved it.
I believe most machines are good and once in a while there are lemons. I am enjoying the heck out of what I have now and they are all so different from each other. So my advice is to not pigeon hole any of the machines into categories of good or bad or whatever. Just find what works for you and what you can enjoy. My experiences have been all over the place. I am absolutely in love with this craft and hobby we have to enjoy and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to pick and choose what can make it so wonderful for us.