There was a time when this technology was not available at any price, now it is, at a price. Each of us has to decide if that price is a price we wan to/can pay.
I know if I were running a business, I'd have one for sure, as one small accident, and you can be facing bankruptcy, or at the very least, you would be working hard for a few years and not making any money.
For the hobbyist it is a personal decision. A buddy in Canada is a surgeon, he is also a fair woodworker, the one tool he did not, and would not own is a tablesaw, he has seen the real life results of a hand in a tablesaw blade. He has a bandsaw, a jointer, a planer and such, but no tablesaw. I've not seen him in a couple of years, but I'd bet he would be willing and able to spend the money for a SawStop, think of what his fingers are worth to him.
Chris you are correct about the test to see if the material you are cutting is conductive and would trigger the brake, just have the saw powered on, (NOT running!) and a green light appears, if anything conductive touches the blade, then a red light blinks and the saw will NOT run.
There is a bypass key that you use when you want to cut conductive materials.
I've been using my SawStop for a while now, and I tell you, it is one sweet machine, it cut so very nicely, and everything about it is quality.
I turn 45 this month, and I hope to get another 40 years of use out of the saw, but if I only get 15 years use out of it, that is a whole dollar a day it costs me two own it, how much did you latte cost at Starbucks
(I paid about $5500 with shipping, 365 days a year time 15 years is 5475 days, close enough?)
For you guys in the US that can get the saw for about $4000, that is just about 11 years at $1 a day.
Worth it to me, but that is the kind of decision we each have to make