Is variable speed worth the extra money over a step-pulley drill press?

Specialist community threads we read repeatedly cite variable speed as a quality-of-life upgrade because it eliminates opening the belt cover to swap pulley positions. The trade-off is cost and, in some designs, slightly reduced low-end torque. Step-pulley machines with many speeds (like JET's 16-speed floor models) are still well regarded for their mechanical simplicity.