When we take film to develop, the photo store does the image processing for us including adjusting brightness, contrast and colour. CCD imaging is the same, except we have to do our own processing. This give us a lot more power on what the final image will look like. Some of those one-hour film developers have no clue what a deep sky object should look like. The deep learning curve on CCD imaging most experts talked about is on the image processing technique.
Beginner can still get a decent images by only adjusting the background and range.
I never used one, and not planning to get one. I'd get one if it's cheaper. Plus, hunting DSOs is part of the fun. It will make finding and centering objects easier. You cannot use f3.3 focal reducer with a flip mirror on most telescopes due to focus problem.