Agreed. Was disheartened to read that the machine's primary use in the coming years will be to build JSF planes instead of infrastructure for new light rail networks.
They make a lot of critical parts for commercial airliners.
Parts where a high strength to weight or volume ratio is critical are the candidates for such an expensive process. I suspect most of the output is in aircraft, spacecraft, turbine blades, and possibly other machine tools. The journalist had to pick one that people would recognize.