I think most of the people who responded mis-understood my post.
I don't use machines much because I'm a powerlifter so most of what I do I use barbells, but I am not against them.
I'm against the HIGHLY LEVERAGED ones that allow people to lift obscene amounts of weight just because of physics.
I see guys loading up 5 plates a side on leverage shoulder press machines. 99% of these dudes couldn't do a seated shoulder press with 2 plates on each end of a barbell, let alone 5. It's silly.
For those that replied and said the weight doesn't matter, why wouldn't you then want something that had 'reverse' leverage, so you could get the same resistance with less plates to load?
I used to love the Hammer Strength seated row, but the thing was so leveraged I could max the pegs with 6 plates per side and it's just silly. I liked the movement but hated having to round up 12 plates to get the job done and then unload them all and put them away when done.
One of my gyms has a reverse leveraged t-bar row. Takes some pretty good strength to get much beyond 2 plates on the thing when doing a full and proper range of motion. Anytime I've seen 3 plates or more on it the R.O.M. was laughable. No one harldy every uses it. I wonder why?