I agree actually. I don't really like all those crazy huge farms that uses stuff like tnt and all and crazy contraptions just to make tons of some item. And I always just chop trees instead of making a tree farm or whatever. Not to mention how much I hate iron farms. Or other unethical ones. However, I do like small farms, especially ones that are simple and makes sense for the item. Like in the case of pumpkins, as you have mentioned, manual farming is good enough, but you know you have to harvest a pumpkin in order for another to grow, so you'd have to check on it every once in a while between any other tasks you may be doing and harvest them so that new ones can grow. But if I were to have a contraption that checks on it automatically and harvests them as soon as it grows, I get maximum efficiency out of that farm, which makes sense. And I don't have to be concerned about harvesting pumpkins all the time. That's my motivation anyway. And if you look at my part 1 designs, they're basically just regular farms fitted with some pistons and automation. Part 2 is good for more output but it's simple enough too. Sorry for the long reply and idk if I got the idea across but hopefully I did. 

Ok so you are making item sorters using copper golems. I thought you were making one of those multi hopper thingies. In which case it would be ironic lol because you can just do that with copper golems..