Not going to get into the pointless "which is best" discussion, but some of these claims are wrong. The workflow is perfectly fine, why do you think that there's something wrong with it? The new machines have a group head controller, so you don't need the touch screen. Where is your evidence that it...

Really? I don't think it's a hobby at all, I just like tasty coffee

That's quite an amusing false dichotomy, especially considering your choice of machine. A Vibiemme Domobar DB and super HX PID doesn't sound particularly simple! I have an early DE1, ordered before production started. One of the main motivations for me was the promise of a really simple interface; a...

You are wrong. They encourage users to repair their own machine if they are willing and capable and if they aren't there's a community of users who help each other out. They are very supportive of customers with issues either directly or through the Basecamp "forum". All the parts are available to b...

It's unlikely that they will produce a DE model that can brew and steam at the same time. The issue is power supply capacity. Water is heated on demand, so you need to be able to heat water for steam at the same time as heating water for brewing. That demand exceeds the supply capacity of a US

Yes, I have doubts about the usability; it doesn't look comfortable, but we'll only find out when we get a few independent views

That was the case with the earlier DEs, the current V1.3 has a group head controller which allows real time adjustment of the shot, flow or pressure

As Davidm said, the upgrade is only available for v1.1 machines, mine is a v1.0. The new v1.3 is £2473 + £146 shipping less about £850 trade in allowance for v1.0. machines. As I'm in the UK I'll get hit for VAT and duty, which is likely to be about £500, so a total of more than £2200. If

If you resist the temptation to fiddle with all the parameters it is a very easy machine to use. Initially choose one preset - gentle and sweet is quite forgiving - and don't fiddle with anything on the machine. Then adjust grind and dose for your coffee, as you would with any other machine and just...

But you don't have to upgrade if you don't want to, the machine will still work as well as it did originally. (I don't see it as planned obsolescence, just a very keen team trying to make the machine better.) Most of the changes are software and firmware which, so far, have been backward compatible ...