Im not sure how someone would think that there is a significant difference in the amount of skill required to either walk the cup or freehand. Any decent tig welder could do both in any position (i would hope atleast). Mirror welding and back feeeding on the other hand are a differnt story.
OP, im not sure the point of your thread. What exactly do you plan on doing with your new welder? How skilled are you at tig welding? I personally do not think tig welding takes any more skill than any other process, but it does take alot longer to get a good hand at it. Tig is a slow go, its for precise work, and it takes alot longer to tig a joint then it would to stick or mig it.
Also, you have to consider other things like; what size/ type of tungesten are you gonna use, tungesten is pretty expensive. Then your gonna need differnt size cups, extra gas lenses, diffusers, collets, caps, etc. etc. Differnt sizes and types of filler metals as well.
If your gonna just be welding light metals for general purposes. i would buy a small mig welder, run flux cored wire with gas for the extra penetration. You can buy them at lowes or home depot. I have a licoln pro mig 140 my dad bought and its a great little welder for smaller materials and sheet metals. If the material goes over 1/4 inch i reach for a stick. you can buy a spool gun for them too for light aluminum work.
On another note, i absolutley hate mig/ wire welding. But
tigweldersreview its monotonus and boring. i would rather stick and tig weld more than anything. but sometimes it is easier, faster, and more practical to use mig.