I bought my first Silhouette Cameo all the way back in 2011 when they were first released. I updated (and upgraded) to a Cameo 4 when my old machine decided that it wasn’t going to communicate with my laptop anymore.
The Silhouette Cameo can be used to cut paper, vinyl, quilting fabric, and more including felt and thin craft foam. I use the Cameo 4 Plus, which has a larger cut field but all of these projects can be completed with a regular machine (potentially with some adaptations).
Over the years I’ve done a wide variety of projects with my cutter, they are expensive machines and I think the versatility is what makes it worth the high cost.