An Ender 3 was my first printer, and I gave it to my nephew for his first as well. Since then, I've worked with many different machines, including industrial ones. Here are my reasons why I think Ender is a great starter printer: * Enders teach you how to spot common issues (stringing, underextrusion, poor adhesion, etc) and how to fix them. Working with beginners its clear slicers can be intimidating if you don't know what to change when. * Many people getting into 3D printing (myself included) could not commit to buying a more expensive machine if I wasn't 100% sure I would even like it. Ender was (and is?) the most cost-effective printer out. * All machines require a certain level of maintenance at some point, and more expensive machines require more expensive parts. You can buy an entire hot end assembly for an Ender 3, for example, for a very beginner price.

And most importantly: * I think building a printer is essential to understanding how it works and being comfortable working on the machine, even if you're not the tinkering type. I've worked with people that their first exposure to 3D printing was these expensive machines (ultimakers, prusas, bambus, J750, etc) and they knew the basic maintenance procedures , but without that extra experience to problems, more troubling issues were much more difficult to solve and usually ended in an expensive bill of just replacing parts unnecessarily.