Slow doesn't describe it. Like watching paint dry or grass grow (hey, that's Astroturf!). Last week I printed out 18 gas can caps. Took 9 hours. 2 of them were messed up. (why gas can caps? because the new plastic gas cans come with those things on the end that you have to push to get any gas out and all my gas cans are the older style and the caps keep getting lost. Yes, the gas fumes will eventually eat away at the ABS cap, which is why I printed 18 of them)
You don't HAVE to watch the thing run all the time, but I do. I'm using mine correctly, using the right filament, good temperature control in the shop, correct settings, etc, and still, occasionally, a print goes bad, piece of filament has some dust on it and doesn't stick, ruins the whole thing and have to start over. Or something stupid like running out of filament 1/2 way thru a print.
I don't care how good a company says their machines are, they aren't 100% 'click and print' all the time every time just yet. Like I said, I've got a Makerbot, supposedly one of the higher quality machines out there and I still get fails here and there.
If you've got the $$$ to blow on a machine, sure, go for it. Fun to play with. I got mine to kinda help offset some of my business taxes last year, and I can print stuff like replacement knobs or levers or whatever ('cause my business is fixing stuff). But, if you're on the border because of $$$, I wouldn't...