Hey Gil,
it is not the design of the Onefinity CNC machine that makes a region of the workarea unusable, it’s the QCW Frame. Its wasteboard slats and T-tracks cover an area that is not identical with the machine’s workarea.
Before the QCW Frame was offered, the machine came – and still comes – without a machine base, you got to provide one yourself, and if you follow the advices regarding space to reserve around the machine when building a machine base (most use a table with a tabletop), the entire workarea will be usable.
Regarding the toolsetter, the area that it needs is rather small. You could also imagine a pivoting toolsetter that is out of the way when machining the workpiece. On industrial machines, you loose even more workarea for a tool magazine or an area where a tool revolver magazine is accessible (usually on right rear end of the workarea). Some machines have an X axis that is longer than the usable workarea, just to be able to drive the spindle over a carriage with a tool magazine.
I think what Onefinity sells you is a true 32" × 32" workarea, because usually this means the limits of the axes travel. For a Woodworker model, this is 816 × 816 mm, as shown in the “Limits” sections of MOTORS 0–2.
So I agree that many things should be better documented, in this case it’s the QCW wasteboard and T-tracks area being not identical with the machine’s workarea.