I became interested in these because between my business and my family, I can't brew as often or consistently as I want. The hands-off approach to brewing is attractive. I can take 15 minutes to set it up and turn on, come back a few hours later to cool and pitch and clean for a half hour. Do a couple a brews a week for a steady pipeline.
My local Sams club has the model S for $338, $360ish with tax. I was really tempted to grab one. It comes with a $100 credit for Pico Packs, so I figured that brings it down to 260, then is has a decent 2.5g keg, which runs another $75 worth. Now we're at $185.
I thought well, I can always use it as a (expensive)sous vide machine.
So far I've walked away, mainly because of the cost of the kits. $20-30 for 1.5g? Shipping too probably. I also like to tweak and devise recipes. You can make a custom kit, but are limited in your grain and hop selections.
I understand the business model-the machine is a one time purchase, the real money is in the proprietary consumables. I just think those consumables are over-priced. I would also like the option to tell them to skip the included yeast on most kits.
There is a market for these, look at all the 1g kits that are being marketed. There are people that want simple convenient hobbies. The automation and charts and graphs appeal to the techies.
I'll keep an eye on them and if the price drops lower, I might bite. Someday, someones gonna come up with a hack to make it a useful and flexible little small batch wort machine.