I think you’ll be happy. Coming from someone that’s had a prusa mini for 3 years.

I also use FreeCAD, and I don’t think you’ll have a problem with that with any modern slicer, you can export in step to let the slicer do the meshing, or you can use the mesh workbench to get more control over the resolution of the mesh.

Don’t worry too much about print volume. Can always break stuff up into multiple prints, and that’s often a good idea even if the whole thing would fit inside the print volume.

I have killed a couple build plates, one from the TPU print sticking too well to PEI, and pulling chunks off, one from crashing the nozzle into it after I switched from a bare metal build plate to a PEI one without changing the Z offset.

Other than that, I’ve only really replaced one fan that was getting noisy.

As for filament, I use mostly PLA and ASA, because I don’t need to do anything special to keep those dry enough to print. Probably around 60% PLA, 25% ASA, 15% TPU. PETG is fine, but I need to dry it to keep from getting steam bubbles in my prints, and can’t really be bothered when I can just use ASA or PLA instead.

As for TPU, it will string like crazy if you don’t dry it, but you can mitigate this with some parts by turning on “avoid crossing perimeters”. Also try to avoid support material with TPU. I now print TPU on the back side(bare metal) of a third party build plate, using a very thin layer of glue stick.

The problem with a benevolent dictator is that they die eventually, and are replaced by a non-benevolent dictator, or a civil war, or both. Unfortunately it looks like the US democracy might have the same outcome.

I think you’re forgetting the fact that the founding fathers were revolutionaries. They very obviously felt the need for the people to have the tools to depose a government if necessary. However, they did not foresee the US becoming a superpower, or the extent to which weapons technology has progressed.