There were quite a few good responses posted on this when the 'old' forum was available, unfortunately, those are gone right now (and perhaps... (shudder)... forever).
As I recall (do you trust my memory of the old posts?) they were usually not excessive. However, I do recall a number of(something between 'a few' and 'quite a few') responses for short life on some SWGs. As I recall, the most short lived were the ones that didn't have the 'auto-reverse polarity' function.
If you, and your wife or children are the 'we can do this ourselves' sort - bleach is the way to go. If you want less involvement in your pool, get the SWG.

I don't know your financial situation. If you can afford it, I'd go with the SWG. Hell, even if you can't, adding salt (it's cheep) might increase the 'feel' of the water.
This response is incomplete, but other members will add on, as neccesary (and I'll keep my eye on it).

You came to the right place - stick with the pool forum!