Agreed. There's a place for open, smart tools. Some things want to have serial interfaces and sensors and so on, that will do a whole host of actions automatica

Agreed. There's a place for open, smart tools. Some things want to have serial interfaces and sensors and so on, that will do a whole host of actions automatically. Other times you just want the equivalent of a drill or toaster. Pull trigger, drill spins. Twist chuck or shift gearbox, it slips or changes speeds. Push toast down, it toasts, twist the dial if you want darker or lighter. An on/off switch, a potentiometer or 7-segment and some buttons to set temp, and a nice, fast, powerful PID loop to control the temperature (with a 120V AC cable to make 100W all day not a problem) is all I want in a soldering iron. I have a combination soldering/hot air station that's almost 20 years old, it just always works.