These entry level ones are a pain in the ass to find tune, though (which has to be done frequently). I don’t know the cost of the cheapest automatic one, but I’ve got a friend with more expensive Bambu Labs and they’re so much closer to “set and forget”.

I have an Ender-3 V3. It has automatic bed leveling. Creality added quite a bit of features to it over the older budget Ender-3’s while still keeping it relatively affordable. It’s a lot faster than the prior ones too. I also have an Ender-3 V2 SE so I’ve had plenty of time to do some direct comparisons. While the older V2 SE is more finicky to level the bed, and it’s slower to print, mine has been very reliable. Weirdly enough I find I use it more often for larger prints that may take several days, like big flat panels for robotics projects or big Gridfinity bins. I use the V3 for the quicker smaller prints that I want same-day.

I replaced the V2 SE’s frustrating glass bed with a magnetic one, like the V3 comes with. It’s much easier to deal with all-around. I replaced the bed springs with better ones so that I don’t need to calibrate nearly as often. I got one of those better extruder kits for it. I think the Creality people realized how crap the V2 SE’s stock plastic extruder is, so they kept the price for the metal upgrade kit at a palatable USD$10 and made it very easy to do the swap.