I'm just curious as to what people's idea would be of a "perfect" entry level printer in terms of cost and features. Entry level here meaning people with no experience, no history with 3d printing that don't really know if they want to fully dive into the hobby, or kids wanting to enter the hobby but have no prior experience.

Price is a big one I'm keeping in mind, even a couple of hundred bucks for the cheapest chinese kits is a lot of money to some people. Especially if they don't know whether they will keep going with the hobby, or don't have their own source of income and rely on their parents.

Feature wise I feel bed leveling is a must, it saves a ton of hassle and can be implemented using a microswitch which you'd otherwise be using for the z axis anyway so I don't see it adding a noticeable cost if any cost at all. Thing's like LCDs and SD card readers (from experience) aren't crucial on a first printer. It's a feature people miss after they've used them and had to go back to not having them, but don't seem too bothered by when they've been printing tethered the whole time. One controversial point I'd like to bring up is that I don't think entry level (again, look at my definition of entry level above) printers should have a heated bed. The extra danger from getting burned and the power/wiring associated with them doesn't seem appropriate for the target demographic.

I like the concept behind the 101HERO, kodama obsidian and the STARTT. The 101HERO made a bunch of mistakes (that i'm hoping to avoid), the obsidian has gone up in price since the kickstarter and I think the STARTT will be going up in price as well soon since they can't really make much profit selling it that cheap and that's not sustainable. I really like what these printers are trying to do by making things cheap and accessible and want to try my hand at it too.