Well, the 3rd gen comes with heatbed as standard whereas the 2nd gen does not come with this as standard although it is available in the pro version which is 599$
I think its nice to have a big print area (especially x/y) when you want to print larger objects such as cupholders for the car and such.
Once i actually had to print a part that was longer than the x/y axes, and we had to redesign an angle at the object while rotating it to 45° around the Z axis to have it inside the print area...
so i would say go for 3rd gen or an entirely different printer, as it requires a lot of tuning to print properly