I freely admit I'm of two (or maybe several) minds on this subject. On the one hand, I don't mind spending big bucks on something that I want and know I'll use, like the laser. On the other hand, it annoys me to no end to spend a fraction of that amount of money for something I wouldn't use on a regular basis.
The current symptom of that syndrome is, I'd really like to have a decent bandsaw to resaw thin inlay stock to feed to the laser...but it would probably only get turned on once a month or so to make stock for the next batch of plaques or boxes or whatever. Yes, I know there are a bunch of neat things you can do with a bandsaw besides resawing, but I don't want to get into the mode of doing project X instead of project Y just because it keeps some expensive tool busy so I won't feel like I wasted money buying it. And on the third hand, I'm having trouble convincing myself that there is a machine that hits the overlap between what I want to do with it and my economic comfort zone.
What it comes down to is, I wish there was a local woodworking "hobby shop" where I could rent time on equipment that's either too expensive (or too big) for me to justify owning.