[johnnyanmac]

The issue is that the customers aren't us engineers, despite us being the ones who will interface with it more than the actual customer (the business owners).

>And even if we want the nice things, we may not actually be able to afford them.

Sure hope that wasn't the case. If they can't afford a proper tool for employees (which is maybe a few tens of thousands a year at worst. a fraction of an employee) how are they going to afford me?

I'm sure it's just penny pinching, but I sure hope a boss never says outright "we can't afford this tool" without very good reason.