I was actually thinking of the Grainfather, albeit without having actually used one. I realize that a user would be giving up a good bit of autonomy - but at half the price of admission. Alternatively, for better control - I like the looks of the Nano from Colorado Brewing company - still less autonomy than the Z. The Brewha BIACs enter a different price point.
I guess this is a major part of my issue - I have the Zymatic leveled and dialed in such that I can set it up, press go, and walk away. But I have to be there for that and have to be available 6 hours later for when its done. The tech is there for it to start a brew at 2PM without me (after I've set it up earlier) and then I can deal with the cleanup at 8PM when I'm home. Be that via a remote start, an intentional delay (that doesn't require circulating the water for X hours), or otherwise. I want to use it WAY more than I do, because I rarely have a 6 hour window (even 5 with the short mash) when I'm home (and awake) to take advantage of the autonomy it could have. The capability is there, its just out of reach. With that outlook, I suppose I want it to be something that it is not.
Also - I'm talking about the complete segregation of the forums, which they claim is because they are testing a different forum platform. If you don't have a Pico or a Z, you can't see the other forum (though there are a few cross posts popping.) The reason I believe? There are plenty of requests reaching way back, and some minor grumbling on the Z forums. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of other posts, but that forum doesn't get a ton of traffic - and 2 year old questions about frustrating software that hasn't been addressed might throw some red flags for some people.