Knluk My 2 cents - based on 2 hours in which I’ve had a Niche in the house, and a fair amount of experience with audio gear (which seems to follow rather similar ‘rules’ to coffee gear):
Longevity - unless you plan to use the Niche ‘semi-industrially’, that thing is a) built like a small tank and b) with ease of maintenance in mind. Yes, there is less to go wrong in a hand grinder, and even just for that reason the Weber will outlast the Niche, but unless you truly plan on leaving your coffee dinasty a heirloom… little to choose from.
Build - I haven’t seen anything to suggest that the quality of design and assembly in the Niche is sub-par. Will it be the same as a super-duper hand-built grinder? I don’t know, but the few measurements I’ve seen done on Weber stuff don’t indicate that they are actually engineered and built (rather than finished) better than well-built mass-assembly products (like my Mazzer or Ceado, or indeed the Niche).
Beauty - in the eye of the beholder. The Niche is significantly less conspicuous… which, depending on what you (and your family) like, may actually be better than the in-your-face naked engineering of the Weber. If you allow me an architectural comparison, which one is more beautiful:
I can’t comment on cup quality, as I haven’t tried anything from a Weber, but I think with either of these (or the Kafatek, or the Lagom) you are very much on a near-flat spend-vs.-taste part of the curve. It may be more a question of what you enjoy in coffee and what type of coffee you drink, rather than ‘absolute’ improvement.
Re: the nastiness of dealing with Weber, again, no direct experience. I have read the same posts as you have (probably), and there were screenshots of messages that definitely weren’t pleasant. At the very least that would make me very wary. Then again, one of the best restaurants I know is managed by a guy who can be quite unpleasant to deal with, but once you understand where he’s coming from, and what “your” part of the bargain as a customer is, everything works brilliantly.
