My basic tesco one has transformed my life although DS complains about how often we have "stew" or "casserole" these days. It obviously doesn;t cut down the preparation time, but it does mean that after you have done it, you go away and don't need to worry about anything else until feeding time. And as I have limited mobility at the moment, I can put it on the kitchen table next to the fridge and not have to worry about pots and pans.
I do a chicken "stew" by throwing an entire chicken in, with root vegs, potatoes, onions, garlic, stock/wine and celery if we have it, and 6-7 hours later, there it is. Or chicken pieces. Or a very fine chilli, or beef stews. The results have been widely popular and DH says it's the best culinary investment he has ever made.
I haven't done puddings because we don;t tend to eat them.
I personally don't bother to brown the meat beforehand - perhaps I lose a bit of flavour, but in my view it is designed to reduce the faff so I cut it out.
I've bought a timer so that if I need to go out, it will switch on by itself.
And none of us has suffered - but I think that's because we eat it pretty much as soon as it is ready, or the food gets put in the fridge as it would be with any other stew.