Yes, exactly.
In my opinion and experience, also reading other competent commentary on here and elsewhere, the “AMS 2 Pro” and AMS HT are nice-looking items still lacking some needed functionality, from something as simple as a display on the “AMS 2 Pro” like the AMS HT has, all the way to mentioned critical issues with the units like the [lack of?] drying capability “from scratch”, filament embrittlement (as mentioned by @L0rdS474n for example) suspected unreliable [?] temp and/or humidity monitoring, strange compromise with “rotisserie heating” modes, etc.
For my particular units (1 AMS 2 Pro and 1 AMS HT), it seems they maintain adequate temp and humidity for the duration of the prints I do, using the methods I described - Of course I can’t use the AMS 2 Pro as a heated drybox for printing like possible with the HT, but the filaments I use in there seem fine once dried initially in the AF100, and doing a short heating cycle (no rotation) in the AMS 2 Pro before printing to “purge” it.
Regarding desiccant, I loaded the AMS units with the desiccant packs they came with, but I don’t rely on those for anything, I’ve printed desiccant holders that fit into the middle of the filament spools (printed from the same filament on each spool), and this seems to get the job done, judging by the “results test”.
For drying filament, I prefer the Ninja AF100 to any “filament dryer” of any “consumer” specific filament drying options, which to date, objectively all offer inferior drying performance. The AF100 is a “one-spool” blast oven, with +/- 4º C temp control over its range of 40º C - 210º C, also excellent for annealing.
Faster and better for <= USD $100 wins, every time.
In the past I’ve used an Eibos Cyclops filament dryer, for drying and while printing with good results (even for difficult filaments), I found that once the filament was properly dried, setting the Cyclops to 50-55º C while printing allowed consistently excellent results even with highly hydrophilic filaments.