Ya, the clamp is pretty flimsy. I've had to replace the wire lug. I bought a few much bigger replacement clamps for our other welders and I got two magnetic clamps. Kinda handy for large flat work or sticking to a weld table and won't fall off.
Ya, everything is inverter technology and even my local service guy suggested I don't buy the 255 for home unless I use it constantly (I don't). He says you don't want it sitting around for years and it suddenly crap out with only a few hours of use. The boards inside are all one so there is no cheap fix. You have to buy the whole mother board, not just a simple power board, or hi freq board for a hundred dollars.
I have a very vintage 220 Millermatic mig machine. Just a big transformer,a big contactor, and some cables. Nothing to fail. The transformer has taps you just move the positive cable to the one you need. Friend gave me to use 30 yrs ago and still going strong. I want tig at home, thus the dream of the new machine. Another friend has an old Miller tig machine he will sell me since he got a good deal on a big power supply. It too is just simple and been reliable since he bought it new.