i've had a 211 for a couple years now, and i am happy with it. i can guarantee that 95% of the people who would not recommend that model are doing so based on duty cycle. they see the 30% duty cycle and think they will be waiting on the welder constantly. my point of view is that i spend more time doing fitup and alignment between pulling the trigger that i never max out the duty cycle. also, that duty cycle of 30% is at the rated setting of 150a if i remember correctly. as you work the current lower the duty cycle jumps up - 60% at 100a and 100% at around 60a.
i think it's the right welder if you routinely work with 1/8-1/2 inch material, with the occasional thicker pieces. i believe that if you own skidders or excavators that cost from the 10's to 100's of thousands of dollars and regularly have to work with 1" and larger material then it's not the machine for you. if you own 50hp and under tractors then i can't imagine why you would need to work with 1" and thicker material on a constant basis. welding the occasional wood splitter wedge on is not an issue for this welder.
i also have the belief that many people over weld things. i have worked in an industry where steel from 3/8" to 1" thick is routinely welded together with a 5/16" fillet weld or less. i've also looked at numerous pieces of equipment and attachments, and a lot of the welds are intermittent welds. certainly there are instances where you need to splice a piece of material and a complete penetration (or as close as possible for a shadetree welder) is called for, but you don't need that much weld everywhere.
i can't say as for aluminum performance since i've never used the spool gun yet, but aluminum is a great heat sink, so in general it takes more to do less. i think it's about as small as you'd want for doing much aluminum. i've used it with 0.030 solid and 0.035 flux core on a variety of thicknesses - probably 1/8" up to 1" and it has generated plenty of heat to get proper fusion.
as far as quality, it's hard to say in only two years, but i would have to assume that anything carrying a miller/lincoln/hobart name would be made well enough so as not to draw bad attention to the name. the 120/240 option is a nice feature, though i haven't used it yet on this welder. there have been times in the past where i've had to drag a 120v wire feed over to a friend's house to fix something, and they didn't have 240v readily available. when i bought mine miller was the only one doing this. i'm not current to see whether competing brands offer this now.
the last thing is the price. i paid $965 and $200 for my welder and spool gun. with a little negotiating i got a local dealer to do $965 on the welder, which was the same as i could have got it online. they couldn't match the spool gun, but they didn't stock it anyways, so i ordered it online. ironically, the best price online i got was from the parent company of the local shop, so it actually shipped from about 65 miles away in the same state. ebay is currently $1000 and $200, so i'd be shooting for around $1200 on those two if possible.
for your tanks you haven't said how big you were looking for. i'm guessing either 60cf or 120cf range? around here the two gas dealers sell/stock/and lease 20, 60, 120, and 250~ish size bottles - capacity varies slightly by product inside them. if your $2k price includes the purchase of two 120cf tanks filled, then it's probably not too bad of a deal. $350 filled per tank is probably in the ballpark ($300 shipped empty online). if the price is for two 60cf tanks then i'd see if they can sharpen their pencil some - i'd say by $200-$300. check a local tractor supply for gas bottle purchases and fills as a comparison. i know they deal in at least 60cf bottles.
edit: just noticed that you are north of the border. my price comparisons are probably null and void now. i dunno what gas availability is there, or whether any retail chains offer it.
