interesting.
The things that you pointed out were not areas I had been overly concerened with, while the things I had been concerned with you didn't mention.
As for the saw itself, it's an older-model contractor saw but it was owned by a hobbiest, not a contractor.
What I don't like about the jobsite Dewalt-style saws is their light-weight, their rack-and-pinion fence and their small table top size, all of which were design choices to make them lightweight and portable - neither of which I particularly need in a home setup. All of these lack cast-iron tops (and lack even ferrous tops) which eliminates any of the magnetic featherborads etc available.
A larger top (with feed & fence) and heavier overall is two reasons i'm looking at contractor saws vs jobsite.
Saw-blades or course are nice, but as I already have a half-dozen blades of various types; this wouldn't come in useful until later on, assuming they were good blades to begin with.
Still, your responses have be thinking of aspects I hadn't given as much thought to, so thanks for your feedback.
I don't use the saw, myself, very often. DH does, but most of the things he does, I have seen people do in the past 8 years with the new smaller / lighter versions (see below), e.g., cutting 4x8 sheets to make kitchen cabinets, other items where you want an accurate, stable, saw.
When you set up the saw, you want it with excellent clearance; we have built it into a table and added roll off extensions (fold away ones).
So, your shop layout either needs to be designed to work with a portable/movable version or have your saw be in the middle of the room all of the time. The in between - movable on rolling castors is not so great. Even fabulous castors that you spend $300 for will compromise you a bit, decreasing the incremental benefit versus a portable. I actually like the increased stability of a portable saw that you lift onto a solid table / surface, then put away after.
FYI - We bought our saw in the 1990's, the alternatives available then were not so great for accurate cuts, so we paid for this 800lb monster... and it cost a lot.
Challenges with full size table saws:
The challenges with the full/ heavy version -- getting it down the stairs to the lower level shop (WINCH, and WINCH SUPPORT needed, unless you are crazy like my DH). Then we moved and needed to get it back up. Then we moved 2 more times. We thought the accuracy / stability would be worth it at the time.
It uses 220V circuit, and for one place that we moved to, it was in the garage, and we rented there, so DH had to keep unplugging my dryer to connect it up (I don't recall how he adapted the plug / switched the circuits to make it work). All the other locations we owned so we created the dedicated circuit from the panel.
In a tight area, the sawdust falls under it, and it is awkward to clean out from under it.
In contrast, my second comment -- my father is a cabinet maker, out of a shop from his home. I grew up with a quality table saw, I remember the excitement when he bought it in the 1980's and could extend his client services.. he used it to make fine furniture and everything else. BUT -- For the past 10 years he now takes his portable saw with rails to the job site, and he does a lot of custom kitchen woodwork and finishing on it. (for very picky, wealthy people).
If we had the new style portables available back in the 1990's I would have 100% told younger me to NOT buy the fixed in place saw, nor a semi-portable version that I would put on a castor table.