That's not entirely true. The more hands on something gets and moves away from automation, the more chance for errors. That's also why it only has a 90 day warranty.
Wrong.
The camera was produced via automation already. It is double checked by a human, which unlike a machine can see defects. You do realize that automation produces flawed products all the time, right? That's why a certain percentage of the products are pulled from the assembly line and are inspected by humans. When a defective camera makes it to the shelf, it's usually one that slipped through the QC process and wasn't checked.
You're wrong, sir.
Automation is the reason why you don't see blacksmiths, or gunsmiths mass producing products anymore. Because the quality of one will not be the same as the one made before it, and just hope that that gunsmith isn't having a bad day and feeling lazy, to the point of overlooking everything.
It's also cheaper, but quality can be controlled much easier with automation, as they have but one set of standards, and if it doesn't fit the standards, it's then taken and repaired by, not so much a "skilled technician" as mentioned above, but probably some hood with his pants half way around his butt, and could care less about the company.
That's how it was at Asus for motherboard repair, and I can only imagine Canon is very similar. Also, you'd be surprised at how many of the "repaired" motherboards and video cards end up coming back for more repairs.
I've seen it first hand, I've seen the workers, and it's most likely safe to buy a refurbished product, but I'll always opt for the one that made the cut the first time, and the one that comes with a much longer warranty because of this.