i completely relate to your last part there. i didn't have a good place to leave the giant VPI set up, so was lugging it in and out of a closet any time i wanted to clean stuff and it was a big to-do. those things are HEAVY.
the HG fits in a kallax and is real light. super easy to pack away and pull out. and like
@debianlinux said, you just press some buttons and walk away. you don't have to sit there while holding a brush or whatever to clean an album. frees up more time (also partially why i run the longer cycles!). i can just drop a record in while i'm working or doing stuff around the house then pop back when i have a chance to swap the record out.