Rob : Agree that marine electronics in general and especially autopilots are way overpriced and rather crude.  They tout algorithms / fuzzy logic for maintaining course but they are actually extremely basic in their control sophistication. Some simple signal processing (to cancel out swell effects) applied to their control logic, never mind AI, would be a vast improvement but don’t get me started on that rant. B&G seems to be leading the way there (and charging for it)

Mike : After having owned Raymarine products in the past and having dealt with their customer service, I won’t buy Raymarine again. Period.

Also, anything that’s out on deck, in my view needs to be able to operate submerged in green water. Don’t like the idea of electronics way out there unless they are rated for that. Wire connections also tend to corrode, sometimes even if installed well. My experience with hydraulics has been very positive so far, simple, reliable and usually overbuilt for the task and very few parts that wear if any. If well installed of course!  Last one I had, I didn’t touch it for 10 years except to add a pump, zero maintenance, zero issues & was submerged several times. Pretty much everything around the hydraulics failed at some point (old boat) except the hydraulics and seastar helm.

“A single autopilot, but two directional sensors, one for each direction, with a toggle switch to flip between the two.” This sounds like a good idea; the shunting switch can switch both the pump and the heading sensor.

Agree on the features: wind vane mode is very nice, remote keychain control is fantastic single handed