A question for you expert barristas (or anyone knowledgeable about espresso)?!

okay so I'm sorta new at making espresso (I've been doing it a while but I'm still learning) A while back I finally upgraded from a steam powered to a pump powered machine (boy is it nice to taste unburnt espresso) and I've been getting a lot better at pulling my shots but today while looking around on the internet I realized my machine uses a pressurized portafilter. What are the cons? I read that the crema you get from it is fake (which doesn't make sense) and I've also read many opinions about the technique of using a portafilter of this type. Some say don't tamp, some say tamp lightly and some have said tamp like you would a regular portafilter. It makes me mad because I've spent hours and hours trying to get the perfect shot and perfect crema by playing around with my grind and how hard I tamp but now I don't know if all that time was wasted or not because of using a pressurized portafilter.