My personal recommendation would absolutely be to get a Carta. The problems you read about are the exception, not the rule. It's still a best-in-its-class device for less money than the competition, and made even better by app and accessory customization options.
As for a manual dab rig - to me, the appeal of something like this is partly never having to smell butane ever again. It's also great for social dabbers like me who want to take their stuff on the go with friends or out into the wilderness. Sure is a hell of a lot easier to toss your carta case into your backpack than your whole rig/torch/enail/whatever setup.
A semi-related anecdote: I took my Peak to Iceland last year. It was amazing to hike out to remote waterfalls where there was nobody else around for miles, and then whip out the Peak for a quick and easy dab. Unfortunately I got screwed once when I did all that climbing and hiking, only to get to my destination and find that the Peak battery had died. It doesn't have an auto-off function, so if you forget to turn it off, the battery inevitably drains. I was so dismayed being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no alternative to smoke.
Of course, that hasn't been an issue at all since I got my Carta. Not only does it shut off automatically after an idle period, but you can also swap dead batteries out for fresh ones. I'm going back to Iceland in a couple weeks with my Carta and some peace of mind that no matter how deep into the wilderness I trek, I can count on it to keep me high
