I think that's why I always give you a hard time about accelerators. It's not that I don't understand some games are slow and could benefit from increased speed... It's that I've experienced those very games back in the day and never thought they were slow then, and I'd still choose slow stock Amiga Wing Commander over most other versions because of the Amiga's music. I've yet to have an Amiga game break my patience in terms of gameplay speed.
That's also a principled choice for me because I feel that even if 90% of Amiga YouTubers have an accelerator card, that's not the people who are watching those videos. Which is also why I choose the 500. Hardware can become a drug, and before you know it people have lost all passion for the machine that now bears little resemblance to its original self.
I was always sucked into your Phenoix reads. Now I can see the comparison for that particular computer, as the Phoenix was what it was all about. But in terms of the 1000 model I wouldn't imagine you'd get rid of your 1000's because you can't imagine using one without the Phoenix.
That's probably the most difficult question for any person even a little bit into hardware to answer. I've got the MIDI musical keyboard to Amiga hardware thing, which brought me more joy than the MT-32... It caused me to express my own unique creativity on a machine I loved. To put out to the world my own art. I suppose Deluxe Paint had a similar feeling to many, even if it was not hardware but software... But I can't draw, so I could only ever play with DPaint. Making music on the Amiga was something special and for anyone that can mess with a keyboard a little, I'd recommend that one.. But I tend to have my serial port hooked up to a null modem cable more than that music thing, so even with me that's not a must have.
Of course not everyone would view the MT-32 as a must have. There's plenty (bad word, vocal minority) of people with ears that do not hear what I hear who think Adlib is more impressive than anything made then or since... The MT-32 was an uncommon device that received an astonishing amount of support because the designers themselves used it... I imagine that's what got so many American Amiga games to support hard drives... Because even American's were largely in the floppy only arena, but the designers had them, so they supported them. For some people I could see an accelerator being something that makes life much more special... But I'd genuinely love to hear their thoughts on if it's useful enough to throw out the computer without the thing.
I'd put the toaster there for some people, because so many Amiga's were sold only because of that hardware being included. I think it's because of that aspect of the toaster which causes me to be so fascinated by it. I eat up everything toaster for the Amiga, I just would never have a use for one myself, but I can see how for some people that one piece of hardware WAS the Amiga, and it was worthless without it. Maybe a digitizer for photographers?
Purely imagining this scenario: The Amiga 500 could be turned into a 2000 via a device I vaguely recall being called the Botany Bay (or I just watched Star Trek II and messed that name up completely). It literally made the thing look like a 2000 and added all of its expansion cards to the 500. What if someone who bought the 500 for their own uses suddenly got into a wedding photography business and were the first to make wedding tapes a little more special with added text and stuff added to the video? To do that, he made his 500 into a 2000, which was now the essential piece of hardware that he might not even have use for anymore without it.
Love reading about those types of hardware projects, even if I'd never use for them. It's all about personality... On YouTube I say that you come first for the games, you stay for the personality. With the writings it's the same... You come and read because you have a personal connection with the topic, be it a game, application, computer, or hardware... You stay and read the next article that has no personal connection to you because of the personality. I've seen some YouTubers do nothing but hardware week after week... I'd have figured they would have run out by now, but I do fear that they have run out of personality, because there's nothing about their looks into most hardware that give off that impression of personal want and passion. There's no why in their coverage, it's because they can... Which can even make a piece of hardware you might be interested in not worth watching, because you're pretty sure some of these people just go onto Ebay and resell the thing right after the video is done.
The phoenix story was pure personality driven. Made me want to root for your victory, but also be fascinated with the failures. Not the machine itself, which I wouldn't have personal interest in, but it was your passion that made it worth going on the journey with you. That's the key... The key to getting a handful of people to love you, and 95% of everyone else to take one look at the word count and skip right by! The key... To obscurity.... Alright so it's not exactly glamorizing, but I can vouch for being in good company.