Inkjets consistently make higher-resolution photos than lasers at the same price point. As you approach photo-quality, you can probably get very good photos from a $500 inkjet, and commercial quality photos from a $1000 inkjet.
I don't know of any laserjet that approaches that quality. Instead, laserjets main advantage is the simpler and cheaper to use toner. At the $300 price point, laser jets are just cheaper to maintain and use over ink.
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Now there's a bunch of $100 to $200 ink printers (and laser printers) which have even worse attributes. Since most $100 printers seem to be inkjet, I think people rightfully give them a bad reputation.
But at higher price points, a 11-ink printer is the only way you're going to get anything near photo-quality. (Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000).
But you get photos printed at <wherever> for pennies, so who wants to buy an inkjet and the fancy photo paper?
So why buy a printer at all? Well, because of the convenience factor primarily. Buying from a store (or online service) requires driving, and/or waiting for the mail to arrive.
When scrapbooking, or doing other projects with photos, its far more convenient to know that you have a printer that can instantly make a copy of any photo in your entire digital library. You don't necessarily know what photo you want yet, you may need to lay out a few pages in the scrap book before you know what you want.
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In any case, a "community printer", ie: the local library, is probably best for people who only need a few documents a year.
I think leveraging your local library resources is a skill that any adult should know how to do as well. When your documents grow beyond the ability for your local library, that's when you get your own printer.