I have played the SW Home version a little, and although I haven't put a lot of time on one I must say I actually enjoyed playing it more than a full-blown SW Pro, it's a legitimately good game IMO. The shots are great (I believe it's a Gomez design), there's some real depth to the code that should give it some staying power in a home setting, and the audio and video are well-done (hobbled only by the tiny screen and mono sound). Upon inspection, it's obvious where the cost-cutting vs a "proper" Pro game took place, but it's not really noticeable during game play and I don't think any of it will be significantly detrimental to long-term durability in a home setting.

I really don't think someone is making a bad choice by picking this up instead of a used coin-op machine; some folks just want that "new pin smell" and the perception of better reliability that comes from buying NIB, and I can't blame them. There is a local place advertising these on their marquee at $4200, so I have little doubt one could be had for $4k with a bit of haggling.

The SW Home playfield has been recycled a couple of times. Earlier versions had plastic ramps and were featured in Transformers, SM, and Avengers home pins (which were mostly dismal and have been completely scrubbed off Stern's web site), then reworked slightly for Supreme. The version in SW Home has metal ramp upgrades and a couple of reworked details, but is the same basic layout. This playfield may have been used for other titles as well, but I cannot recall.

Of note, the $8k Heavy Metal pin uses an almost identical playfield as the SW Home, so you can feel great about getting a "good deal" and paying half the cost for the same basic ball-flipping action if you pick up SW!

Those were the first incarnation of "The Pin" if I recall correctly. The first was Transformers, followed by Avengers; they are identical except for the theme, used red alphanumeric LED displays, and a weird cabinet design with a playfield that couldn't be raised (the bottom panel of the cabinet had to be removed for access to the playfield underside). I recall Transformers being sold at Costco for $2500 at the time. Of note, these were some of the first games to implement the Spike System.

The next "Pin" was Spiderman; it had a more conventional looking cabinet and small color LCD display, and was the first that looked and felt more like a "real" machine.

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Yes, but those machines (if I recall correctly) were simply decontented versions of the coin-op models. They had the same cabinets, art, DMD, and basic gameplay, so the cost-cutting was mostly implemented via the deleted playfield features, omitted coin mechs, and (probably) cheaper licensing for home-only use.

The "PIN" series is where Stern began to try to purpose-build "home" games from the ground-up, hence the lighter weight cabinets with weird form-factors, chintzy displays, mono sound, parallel-connected coils, etc.