What I was trying to do was define "personal satisfaction" in a way that someone who hasn't bought a CNC router could relate to. I do agree that every tool bought needs to give something back to the hobbyist to help justify the purchase. To me when I walk into my shop I want to look at a tool and smile. I want to feel like no matter how much it cost it was a bargain.

My point about signs and hobbyist is that people on this site are woodworkers of varying talents. They see wood and think about what they could make with it. A lot of those buying the hobbyist machines have limited to no experience with working with wood. They love the computer side of it. They will understand what a vector image is and be able to find images they want on the net or create it much easier than most of us here. They are more likely to walk into Home Depot and buy a glued up pine panel to make something. I never said they weren't creative. In fact I've seen some excellent work. Signs are a great way to start out in the world of CNC routering for a hobbyist. They aren't too hard and there's lots of room to expand on the simple V carve.

But think of it like this. If you bought all the tools you would need to build rocking chairs (one of the reason I'm getting a CNC router is to make parts and templates to make one of my own design). It may take you years to master making them but sooner or later, no matter how great your work may be, you will get bored making them. As a woodworker you will see the potential of the tools you own and find other items you would like to make based on your experience. I've gotten the impression from reading hobbyist machine forums is that there's a lot of people don't see the potential. To them a hand held router is used to round over the edge of a board because they never had a reason to learn it's full capabilities.