Yeah, that totally tracks. Got the same surprise at a spot in Lisbon a few years back. Showed up ready to work after my own lunch, and the whole place was dark until 4pm. Ended up killing time at a pasteis de nata cafe, which wasn't the worst plan B, honestly. Their local hours just fully built around that long break.

Yeah it's a trade-off for sure. I hand-coded my first hundred parts and it made troubleshooting so much easier later. Now I use CAM for complex stuff but still write simple programs by hand, keeps the skill fresh. That foundation lets you fix CAM output when it does weird things too.