I still struggle to find an example of something that is 3D printed (on a hobby level machine) that doesn't look like crap. Milling out of acrylic can be ok but laser cut ABS is even nicer for panels IMO. I tend to build a fair number of one-offs though so hand machining aluminum panels is something I do fairly often. In the time it would take to draw it up in CAD I could just make the panel and when I only need one there's no advantage to having the CAD file.
Surface finish on 3D Printing can be very good! This box picked at random came off my CR-10S over a year ago if I had needed holes added in the lid then a tweak to the Cad file and print another. Maybe not quite up to injection molded plastics but given the customization available for a low cost it is the most affordable prototyping or small production run option available.
Time you had another look at 3D printing and where it now is not where it was 3+ years ago!
For a recent project built into one of the Hammond extrusions, I 3D printed the front and back panels using the Makerbot 2 we have in the office. The print quality is "meh."
Then there's the issue of labeling the jacks and buttons and such. For my first go-round I thought: decals! I took DXFs of the panels and added text to them and printed them out on a variety of sticker material, like all-weather shipping labels and such. It turns out that cutting out the holes with an X-Acto knife is no fun. So I bought a Cricut machine, which (despite the shitty software) does a pretty great job of printing the text and cutting out the holes on vinyl or sticky paper.
Then I discovered that
nothing sticks to the 3D printer plastic. I tried prepping the surface with spray-paint primer and that helped but it's not as permanent as I'd like. I tried the 3M "90" spray adhesive and wow, that stuff is aggressive and not really easily controlled. Next up was another spray adhesive, E6000, which when combined with weighted clamping seems to be almost reasonable.
If anyone has any ideas about adhesives that stick to 3D printed plastic and that are relatively easy to handle (such as a roll-on instead of a spray), I'm all ears!