there are far better, quicker, cheaper methods
Have you milled any boards?
I have the bubble tank and everything out in the garage, which is what I used to use before I tried milling. Haven't touched it since because it's such a drag hauling it out, plumbing it in, disposing of the waste, carefully not splashing any etchant around the kitchen, etc. And at the end I still had to drill the off-centre holes. Plus generate a workable printout, expose the boards, etc. There are more steps in etching, and each step leaves some physical thing to dump when you spot the mistake just too late. With milling there is nothing physical until you start the drilling (although running an end mill through some clamp can be a bit more expensive then throwing away a printout, admittedly).
Sure, if I wanted to do A3 boards I probably wouldn't mill them (perhaps - ask me again if I ever need to do some), but the fact is that most of my boards are smaller than 100mm x 100mm, so that kind of potential isn't going to feature on my radar. YMMV, of course.
OTOH, I'd like to see you etch a board with an irregular outline and a big hole in the middle.
doesn't even have to be a messy process
It is a wet process, which is enough to be a major drag just from the disaster potential, never mind if you actually do spill something.
milling isn't exactly clean given the dust produced
A car vacuum cleaner, switched with the spindle motor, takes care of that here. Indeed, my PCB mill sits on the same desk as my programming PC, and leaving it milling as I program doesn't require me to don a mask of any sort. I don't even hoover especially afterwards.
I could make a HELL of a lot of boards with the $1000
itead could run off a HELL of a lot of baords with the $1000, and they would be double-sided with solder mask and silkscreen. We must be mad to make our own (etch or mill), right? No, there are many considerations, of which up-front tool cost is but one.
I suspect that the best method is whatever you use, because you are already au fait with the process. If your method works well for you, it is hard to see the benefit of a completely different method, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't work well for someone else. And just because you might do this board with that process doesn't mean you will forever do
every board the same way. Horses for courses.