Quoted from jwilson:

There seems to be two camps when it comes to games.
There's the guy who always wants the newest, best "thing", and they like installing tons of mods and LED lighting to "bling" their games out. They like playing, but don't like fixing or cleaning machines. They tend to be mid-30s or so, and only got into pinball recently, perhaps from playing pinball simulators on iPads.
That's the Stern customer.
On the other side, there's the guy who is handy and likes building or fixing things - perhaps works on old cars, does home renovations, or fixes electronic junk. Often they like fixing more than even playing the games, or don't mind the maintenance because they can enjoy the playing. They probably got into pinball in the arcade or on location years ago, and discovered you could buy old pinball machines for your house, and you could get them really cheap if they were broken.
That's the Williams customer.
Now, it's not a hard and fast rule, obviously tons of people overlap quite a bit (including myself). But there is definitely two different types of pinball collectors separated by generation.
On a side note, it seems like Stern people love putting their games in dark rooms with blacklights, like it's a night club. What's up with that?

Quoted from Geocab:

I don't know if I can agree with reliability being better. I've seen old Williams tables on location in better shape than Sterns at the same location. Maybe in a home environment that won't matter, but that's how I see it.