Ultimately, my goal with a garage repeater is essentially a chunky base station radio with a pocket-sized "terminal". But I live in a coverage gap between all the repeaters in the area. When conditions are good, I can occasionally hear one ID. 95% of the time, I hear nothing from them; 100% of the time, I can't open them up.
I think there's a role for the garage repeater, but that role goes away if there's preexisting good coverage.