Just to give you context, Im a brand new brewer and brew in my garage on 240V with the 10.5g foundry. Ive now brewed 11 batches, all NEIPAs except for one pale ale so Ive been putting around 6ish oz of hops into the kettle (boil or "whirlpool").
With this context in mind: 1) after I get 5.75gallons into the fermenter I end up with 0.75g total left over - about 0.68g in the kettle due to all the hop material (I let them roam free with no hop bags etc! - and another little bit for my "into fermenter" hydrometer reading. So after my boil and "whirlpool" Im left with about 6.5g in the kettle.
As for cleaning, it is a breeze for me. After putting wort into fermenter, I immediately measure all my losses (dump hose liquid into kettle first) and then just dump the losses in the grass in my side yard. I then quickly hose the inside of the foundry with my outside hose and all that is left is a little debris stuck to the bottom (not much) and a small ring of hop/debris around where my boil level was. I then add about 8gallons of water in the kettle, hook up the pump and hoses, add the malt pipe back in, add some PBW and start heating to 150 degrees with recirculation. This whole process takes about 5minutes after I measure my losses. While this is heating I then clean up everything else and once that is done, I return to the foundry. Everything heated with HOT PBW takes care of the foundry and pump. I simply rub around the inside of foundry with a simple non abrasive sponge after dumping the solution and the bottom of foundry is already squeaky clean but I give it a quick wipe down anyways. I rinse everything out well and then dry immediately with micro fiber towels. Also, I open the pump after this and EVERY time it has been perfectly clean like new even with all the hop material etc. Quick rinse of the pump, spray with star san and good to go. In summary - cleaning is VERY easy for me.
As for your other questions - since I was starting from scratch, I did buy the recirc system separate from the foundry (but got the recirc at 20% off black friday sale!). That little pump does the job very easily with zero issues. I thought about changing the fittings to QDs or cam-locks - but honestly there is no need to. The white clamps and hoses come off easy and have had zero issues with them. So if you want a different pump and nicer fittings - go for it! My opinion is that they aren't a necessity and Id rather spend my money elsewhere. I haven't second guessed the anvil recirc package for the foundry for one second. It just works and the pump is very quiet and great.
As for the chiller - I did splurge myself and I got a CUSS brewing "all in one" immersion chiller - its basically the same exact design of the hydra. This immersion chiller rocks! With 50-60degree tap water, I can chill 6.5g down to pitching temps in less than 5 minutes. The size of the chiller is such that I just move it up and down in the foundry and it chills QUICK!. I am VERY happy with this "extra" purchase. In the summer I imagine that I will use the foundry's original chiller as a "pre-chiller" if necessary when my ground water is warmer.
Lastly, As I mentioned earlier - I haven't felt the need to buy a hop spider but I imagine it would help lower my losses - but I am of the opinion that I want the hops to be free! lol. I actually don't truly whirlpool with the pump but rather I simply do a hop steep and don't even stir. Again, IMHO, i think that the temperature of water with hops free in kettle is a bigger factor at hop extraction rather than movement (whirl pooling).
So while I didn't have any previous system to compare this against, these are my experiences thus far with this system. Hope this helps and no I didn't get any $$ from anvil for this favorable review although Id gladly accept it if they offered!
EDIT: the other “after purchase” was a wilser bag custom fit to the kettle, not the malt pipe which gives me flexibility to use it in both. Out of all the brews I’ve done I’ve NOt used the bag twice- once it worked just fine and the second time I got more grain material in the kettle than I cared to due to one simple little “slop” when I stirred the mash pipe. So the bag definitely cuts down on the debris making it to the kettle and am very happy continuing using that bag