Our fabricators were very low tech. read: I drew a curve on plywood and they copied it. To my utter amazement, it actually came out OK. That part did at least (I wasn't happy with them for other reasons).

I think there is the gamut of fabrication-technology-users out there. And concomitant skill-levels as well. I don't know how closely they track one another. For example, the gruff elderly Greek gentleman who agreed to look at my job under duress only may have been great but I'm guessing his technological arsenal was minimal. I could be entirely wrong about all of that. He indicated he came from a long line of stonecutters and he sure looked the part at least. My point is though: ask. I sure didn't; I had no idea this was such a big variable, that people differed so much in their techniques, skill, training, experience, plan, etc. Reading this now, looking backwards, I can't believe how dim-witted I was not to recognize this is a vast field of entrepreneurs. But it's worth asking. As well as somehow trying to figure out what sort of answer you're looking for. Because, for example, when I asked about laser cutters I would get withering, pitying responses as in: pshaw, no one worth their salt would ever dream of using such extraneous high-falluting equipment. And predicatably I just said "oh, yes, well, I see; sure": I did not know what answer I was looking for. That should be part of the homework too.

Thus, I guess I still wonder: is automated necessarily better in terms of stonecutting and job-outcome? Dunno. I can tell you though that there is no one broadly-conducted practice. As to whether there is a broadly-accepted best practice, though - well, maybe that's fodder for a separate thread?