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The shaper is super cool, but a little pricey understates it.

You can get a very nice router for $300-ish; the Shaper Origin is 3k.

A CNC router with a work area suitable for typical woodworking projects is definitely not $300 - you're probably thinking about 3018 kits, but with 18 cm of travel, that's really not enough for the usual scale of woodworking projects. Not even enough for a typical cutting board.

A ready-made unit in "woodworking" size will likely set you back $2-$4k.

Handheld router != CNC. A fixed-base 2.25hp DeWalt handheld router runs about $370. The 1.25hp Makita 700 in the Compass' glamour shots and assembly instructions runs about $130. Most fall in that range.

The tape is also like $20 a roll, I realize this pales in comparison to even medium tier wood, but was sorta immediately off putting for me since it reminded me of all the stuff with inkjet printers.

I wonder why not use those simple laser rangefinder things and instruct the user to put CD-tracking like servo steering suitable retroreflectors at fixed-relative-to-workpiece locations. 2 should suffice for planar work.

Probably "tape money" reasons for that engineering trade-off...

Sounds much harder and expensive than tracking points close by

Fyi It's possible to generate and print your own tape

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