This is the emails between the YouTuber YGK3D and Anycubic, it seems like they won’t send 3D printers to reviewers who mention their GPL3 license violations.
tl;dr Anycubic uses open-source software for their firmware, but doesn’t make it public as per license agreement, and they don’t seem to be friendly to anyone who calls this out.
More info: https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxIMpZTkXqFo0H6pDwhZpdYqMYvLhPvWA5?lc=UgxA-4LYvwrnonXuXsZ4AaABAg
It’s a minefield out there!!
I keep doing research into what to buy to get into the hobby, only to after a while give up because it’s all fucked. 95% of reviewers seem fully in the pocket of the companies they are reviewing, it just looks like watching a advertisement.
Get a $250 printer and start using it. It may be all you’ll ever need, but after a year or so it’s likely you’ll start seeing other printers with different functions that you think would be useful and will decide to upgrade. Hopefully you’ll know what you want by then.
I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s a choice between what problems I want to deal with that are specific to the particular brand.
Some may or may not even be real issues I’ll ever encounter. It’s impossible to tell because nobody talks straight.
Go to forums. Look at university print farms.