What is the advantage of this over a normal paper filter coffee maker?
It's hard to find plastic-free normal paper filter coffee makers. A few exist but mostly only for small batches. Also, the porcelain or glass ones are breakable just like the Chemex. I'm a bit suspicious of copper (Hario makes one of those). Kalita has a stainless steel one but it's small and expensive. I'd be interested if you know of anything else.