Ahh, I remember seeing a video about them by a company representative. At the time I was looking up videos about these small, robotic animals that I saw in a nearby toy store and the video came up because it mentioned "Missing your Tamagotchi?". Just like those robotic toys, I wasn't too interested in Fingerling Monkeys because they lacked the autonomy a Tamagotchi had. That probably sounds like a strange statement considering Tamagotchis need their owners to attend to their basic needs, but because Tamagotchis have their own schedules and there is an element of the unexpected, they have the unplanned nature of life. Also, that fact that Tamagotchis are on all the time and do no have to be manual turned on, adds to their life-likeness.
But it does seem some of the very expensive robotic pets do mimic life quite well, thus Fingerlings Monkeys are probably a more affordable alternative. Judging from a video I watched by the company on how to use the toy, the programming does creatively solve some of its weaknesses. Notably, having the monkey go to sleep after inactivity instead of just remaining unresponsive fits in with a living creature, and also describing turning it on and off again as "waking it up" is quite clever. Disguised limitations is better than outright displaying the obvious machine-like nature of the robot.