Gary, i dont understand your point. i also peck drilled when i needed to, easy with 15" of cnc "z" travel. one job comes to mind 5/8" drill thru 6" of 8620 steel with multiple length drill changes, did a lot of these parts.
another job 1/8" drill thru 12" of cast iron (6" from ea end, and parts held so they extended below the table) also with multiple drill changes made easily possible by the free quill and snapchange holder. no chip wrapping took place.
when i bought my mill, bed mills were also available, but 25% more than the knee mill i bought. if i had the $$ id have bought the bed mill, but i didnt have it. so, like Dave, theres a knee mill project waiting for me in my garage. im lucky enough to have ballscrews and axis motors in place and more, but from reading this community and looking back on my 40 yrs in all kinds of machine shops, imho a simple stepper mach 3 add on would be a huge improvement to any hand cranked machine, even with old acme screws with high backlash. one of the reasons i chose the machine i did was it had handwheels. after about a year, i dont think i ever used them again. i was 12 years self employed before the $$ crash in 2008 forced me to take a factory job, had i chosen high end manual machinery for my start up, id have failed in a year or so. cnc is so important. you cant make a circle on a hand bridgeport or a .5 radius in a corner with a 1/4 endmill. or cut a 43 deg line. its harder if the machine is not optimized but its still possible. cant do that with your hands.