Clark, Welcome. We went through the same thing as you and there's a Rockler 25 miles away and after the demo I was ready to buy! VERY glad I didn't! I was looking at JUST the spec's(mainly Z and cutting area) and didn't know what to look for. The more I hung around this forum, the more I learned and knew I had to learn. I saw these people answering sometimes within minutes, other peoples problems, and as somebody brand new to this stuff I knew I was in the right place.
The Desktop has exceeded all our expectations, Now that it has increased Z and I know about "Tiling toolpaths" The work area isn't that important anymore and we haven't needed it yet.
The MAIN thing is the Desktop is a RUGGED one piece unit with exceptional accuracy and repeatability(VERY important) that is ready to use out of the box!
You can grab the gantry or the spindle and Oomph it, and you won't get flex or play. Very important when you have your feedrates up doing intricate Vcarving and machine starts doing the Watusi---BUT it's doing the Watusi as a UNIT and you can't tell by looking at your finished workpiece.
Went to Rockler for some stuff a while back and one of the salespeople was showing a salesperson from a different store how to use the Shark and I couldn't believe how slow they were cutting. When they left the machine I inspected their cuts and they were sloppy and on my machine I would say I was feeding too fast and getting bit deflection, but the bit was fully inserted and I saw them cutting with the 1/4" shank Vbit and I knew that wasn't it, so grabbed router and pushed and THE WHOLE THING FLEXED.
The Desktop with spindle is worth every penny and we have never had a moment's regret (We bought our second Desktop in January
The most important advice I got was "Buy your second machine First---It'll save you time, money, and aggravation".
scott P.
2013 Desktop/spindle/VCP 11.5**
Maine