Yeah, autoflower can produce good smoke. No denying that. All the cons are on the growing side of it, not the end product.
As you say, you can make up for the smaller size with more plants. But even in best case scenarios, autoflower offers no benefits and only detriments. You can get good end product from them sure, but you give up a lot for nothing.
I am 100% against autoflower, since it takes almost all control away from the grower. If government control is inacted over the selling of seeds, you best bet it will come in the form of autoflower.
Forcing you to pay absurd amounts of money for one shot seeds that have inherent problems, cant be cloned or kept as a mother, cant be trained to yield more, and is easily controlled by the government.
I hate that they even exist. Their mere existence stands for everything I hate about the new cannabis breeders. As if autoflower is a selling feature, not the vial, broken, shitty thing it is.
Can autoflower produce good smokable cannabis? Yes. But a completely drunk frat boy whos drunkenly killed 200 people while driving, can also drive home without hurting anyone sometimes too.
Sorry for the rant. Autoflower is a real sore point with me