To put it into perspective lets compare reloaders to cars.

Spolar is a Mercedes
P/W is a Itilian sports car not a Cadillac like some claim.
MEC is a Dodge with a 225 six cylinder.

Spolar cost a lot, runs forever if taken care of and service is great.

P/W runs great when they are in tune but God help you if you have problems and are not mechanically inclined and understand how they work and how to get them back into perfect harmony. Just like an Italian sports car.

MEC are just going to last a long time no matter what you do to them. They are cheap to repair and just work on and on and on. Not sexy just like a Dodge six cylinder was not. But when you were giving your buddy a ride to town, so your buddy could get parts to fix his sexy car you had to laugh inside.

Most P/W problems are owner created or perhaps owners cause them to get worse. A few, a very few, are just bad machines that even the factory can not get right. I had the bad luck to own one of them. Bought as a "factory reconditioned" machine it never worked for more than a case at a time. The other P/W I had at the same time loaded without a problem for four years. Sold that one to a buddy and threw the bad one off the Chesapeake Bay Bridge into the channel. I figured out later it had been a bad machine from day one and the factory got so tired of repairing it they gave the buyer a new one and "reconditioned" the machine I got. If you can have a lemon car you can have a lemon loader. As I say 99.9% are great so if your works for you great. Do not get hot and bothered like some do it you mention you have or had a problem with one. It happens.

Other reloaders will fall into line above or below the P/W to MEC gap and opinions will vary. If you hate a brand you hate it for life and with almost a not that one even if it is free type of feeling.

And nothing beats a MEC 600 JR when you are starting out. Or even for small runs of hunting loads. I still have one and use it to load Bismuth a special loads for hunting. A few boxes and hour is OK when you might need two or three for a entire hunting season.