I can understand the grind difference between both burr types, but I don't buy for one minute that the steel burrs are a must to achieve very good coarse range grinding from the Vario, etc. They (and others) can point out the differences till they're blue in the face, but it doesn't make either any better in the cup. Coffee is like anything else, very subjective and open to debate. Like most things, there is no right or wrong, just what you (or customers) prefer.
For quite some time I used a Nuova Simonelli Grinta grinder for decaf espresso on a commercial level. Sure wasn't meant for that application, but it's what I had and was determined to make it work. Was terribly slow, taking 18-20 seconds per 14 grams, had large steps between settings, had quite a bit of slop due to coarse burr carrier threads and had a terrible hopper/upper burr design that allowed beans to sit on the upper burr ledge and go stale. I made it stepless, tightened up the thread slop and created a funnel that fit in the hopper to allow single dose grinding with no retention/stale issues. Those efforts combined with fresh decaf coffee allowed me to churn out some killer shots that many customers disputed as being decaf because of the high quality. Point I'm trying to make is take what you have or can afford and simply make it work in your favor.
SCG does have a ton of video content, but they have always seemed too biased on what they sell. WholeLatteLove is probably no better. I've seen some videos from Chris Coffee that were much more educational compared to the rookies in the industry.
