I’ve got one because I was on their curriculum team before COVID hit. It’s basically the Cricut for lasers and marketed to a similar user pool. Value for the money is more about super simple user interface, their proofgrade materials for idiots, and the community boards. It’s a laser for people who don’t have the time or desire to learn materials settings and machine maintenance. Carol’s craftroom or a classroom setting like I had, absolutely.
As for the cloud issue I agree it’s problematic. If Glowforge ever goes under they’ve got it in the terms they’ll release the drivers needed to operate without them but the company is already acting like Cricut and charging for priority access to the servers to run a job. They also charge a stupid amount for service, don’t sell parts, and require you to keep a massive box to get repairs done. Given the limitations of not being able to use rotary and high price tag I’d rather have a K40 or Zing if I was dropping my own cash on it.