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Let me state that I never use the term "automatic backup" because it's not technically feasible. I always use the very precise term "scheduled backup".

In the feature subscription page I am writing word for word:

Efficient native command-line PHP scripts for use in CRON scheduling

See? I am very honest. I tell you right upfront that you have to use CRON scheduling. Maybe you are not sure what it means. I agree, it's a bit technical. That is why it is also explained in the training video which is available free of charge to everyone. Maybe you don't like videos. No problem. I have personally written a full explanation of how that works in the documentation which is also available free of charge. Not to mention that it is also mentioned properly in the component's Scheduling Information page, even in the free of charge release. The term "automatic backup" is not used anywhere. I don't know where it came, but it didn't came from my mouth or hand. It is a fictitious feature.

The reason an "automatic" backup can't happen is mostly PHP memory and timeout restrictions. Even if that wasn't an issue, would you expect a visitor of your site to somehow have to wait for dozens of seconds up to a few hours for the backup to complete before his page loads? No way. If you don't want a visit to trigger the backup, what will trigger it? Something on the server. That's exactly what the CRON job is: a trigger for the backup to run. Setting up CRON jobs requires root privileges. Running Akeeba Backup, therefore Joomla!, therefore PHP, therefore your web server under root privileges is suicidal and would leak to a hacked server (not just the site, the entire server). You don't want me to implement a feature which requires you to make your server exceedingly insecure, ergo you have to setup the CRON job yourself.

You didn't have to know that before buying anything, you could have just asked a free pre-sales question. Something like "Can Akeeba Backup take automatic backups, e.g. when my content changes?" would result in a firm "No, it's not technically possible". I receive that pre-sales question at least twice a month and I always reply honestly.

Now, as to why you spent your money on a fictitious feature that is not mentioned in our sales material, documentation or video tutorials, I have no answer. I'm afraid that the qualification to provide an answer to such a question does not come under my profession.

No, no, no. Sorry, you are getting it wrong. You could not efficiently use CRON jobs without buying the Professional version. You would have only been able to use the front-end backup mode from a CRON job which is slower and prone to timeouts. The Professional version gets you the actual CLI script which runs the backup without even going through your web server which is of course explained in the same documentation I mentioned before. The Professional version also contains a gazillion other features not available in Core, for example uploading the backup to Dropbox which would definitely be useful in your case, as Dropbox does offer automatic (yes, automatic, not scheduled) download of the files to your computers (yes, plural).

Moreover, the Professional edition is offered support. Please note that the support offered has only to do with using our software and resolving issues which prevent you from using it as designed and documented by its developer, not as arbitrarily interpreted by its user.