Years back I had the priveledge of working in a shop that had the second Phil spoke cutter ever made (#2 serial number). The original shop owner was sitting next to Phil himself on a plane and heard his idea...
If you are serious about wheel building and plan to do it as a profession...get the Phil spoke cutter. The fact that it rolls the threads rather than cuts them is a big difference.
The other option (although sounds like it is one you're tired of) is, depending on the variety of wheels you're building, is just to have a stock of spokes in many different lengths. Than you don't have to do any cutting/threading yourself. $3000 is a lot of boxes of spokes...