I was thinking of this today. I bought a 3D printer a few (maybe 4?) years ago and it was $2500. I just got a similarly sized (build volume) one today and it was $500 and includes all sorts of GF-like sensors and just press the button usability including auto-bed leveling.
I think the laser tube is going to be the issue in down-costing these things. But if they can keep boosting the power of LED ones, I’m thinking that might be the thing that spurs on quality $500 lasers (not to be confused with current cheap chinese lasers).
I got an M3D Pro. Someone here (might have been @Jules) recommended the M3D folks based on their experience. I’ve got a Makerbot Replicator 2X that is pretty fussy so I figured I would see what’s changed in the tech in the past few years. Didn’t want to spend a couple Grand again and this looked pretty good.
Frankly it was an impulse at that price point and tipped by @Jules comment about them.
I am afraid I have changed my opinion since posting this. The replacement that GF sent me has an issue. I posted about this, and other than a cursory reply, I am still waitiing on a response from GF. On my vacation I had planned to work on some projects that involved tabbed boxes, but because of the problem these are on hold.
EDIT: It looks like te delay was just a support backlog caused by the US holidays. Support eventually got back to me and made things right. GF is still a product I will recommend without reservation.