Not at all, more precisely, they are annoying but in not in the same way.
Most cheap 3D printers are children of the reprap project, and the hacker spirit is still there.
3D printers are often made of cheaply available standard parts, and use the same type of filament. Not all printers can print all materials, but there are no technical measures preventing you from trying, and they tend to be mod-friendly. On the software side, they almost all run open source firmware, and take standard G-code. G-code is generated using a slicer, there are several of them on the market, also typically open source and compatible with all sorts of printer from many brands. Everything is interoperable, even when a brand has the whole vertical. For example Prusa makes filament, printers, slicer software and has a repository for models, and none of these are tied to the brand. No DRM, no huge drivers, no overpriced consumables, totally unlike 2D printers.
The flip side is that you feel like you are buying a new hobby rather than a tool. It is certainly a useful tool, but especially on cheaper printers, sometimes, things don't work right out of the box, you have to make some adjustments, understand its capabilities, know what parameters to use out of hundreds, etc... It is rarely "push a button and get your part", you have to know what you are doing, and even then, sometimes, it fails. That's how they are annoying.
I was kinda waiting when 3D printing will be commercialized to few brands that fight with eachother, DRM everything yet are popular because they are just cheap, but thankfully (and weirdly enough) that hasn't happened.
Most cheap 3D printers are children of the reprap project, and the hacker spirit is still there.
3D printers are often made of cheaply available standard parts, and use the same type of filament. Not all printers can print all materials, but there are no technical measures preventing you from trying, and they tend to be mod-friendly. On the software side, they almost all run open source firmware, and take standard G-code. G-code is generated using a slicer, there are several of them on the market, also typically open source and compatible with all sorts of printer from many brands. Everything is interoperable, even when a brand has the whole vertical. For example Prusa makes filament, printers, slicer software and has a repository for models, and none of these are tied to the brand. No DRM, no huge drivers, no overpriced consumables, totally unlike 2D printers.
The flip side is that you feel like you are buying a new hobby rather than a tool. It is certainly a useful tool, but especially on cheaper printers, sometimes, things don't work right out of the box, you have to make some adjustments, understand its capabilities, know what parameters to use out of hundreds, etc... It is rarely "push a button and get your part", you have to know what you are doing, and even then, sometimes, it fails. That's how they are annoying.