Definitely. Bambu has begun engaging in some genuinely questionable practices, restricting their customers to only their own ecosystem. That being said, if staying entirely within Bambu's walled garden doesn't bother you, their printers are solid machines. For my part, given their current behavior, I wouldn't purchase another Bambu printer—though a newcomer to the hobby, or someone who takes it less seriously, might not be bothered by it at all.
Learning this is news to me. Making my own STL in tinker cad has always worked fine, and I've never run into trouble pulling an STL from a different site either. Being locked into Bambu alone would absolutely throw me into a spiral.
Seems like they're borrowing a few chapters from Apple's handbook.
I really don't think they'll go as far as forcing people to get their STLs solely from them. My guess is that would cross a line the community won't tolerate, and they'd lose support quickly. What they're more likely to do is stuff like tying their printers to their own software (which is already happening) and then later tying them to their own filament. After those restrictions are in place, they can raise prices, and users will either cough up the money or end up with a machine they can't use. I'm hoping it never gets to that point, but it's certainly on the table. That's basically how Stratysys operates already.
Sure, moving from an I3 or Kobra up to the P2S makes things much simpler, but you still shouldn't just leave it running unattended. I learned that lesson the hard way with my Bambu — a blob formed and I ended up swapping out nearly the whole head. The reason? I stopped being diligent and quit monitoring it the way I always did with my Ender. Enjoy it!
That's useful information—I'll remember it.
That sentiment matches how I feel completely. I own 2 Creality printers. There was a time when I backed Creality hard. Their quality control, though, has dropped off a cliff recently. A K2 Plus I picked up a short while back has turned into a total disaster. Modern Creality models? I'd steer clear. The older ones, on the other hand, are excellent!
