Said before, will say again. Try the circular saw on aluminum! The cut quality, is worth the effort! Noise, you can deal with. Wear ear protection, along with adequate eye protection, as always. Table saw or Skil type saw, the cut quality is almost as it would have been if machined. Same with a Router and a template. Super-nice surface finish.
The problem you are seeing regarding expensive air compressors, vs inexpensive Plasma cutters, is a recent thing, Plasma cutters used to have a VERY high price of admission, and, comparatively, an adequate Air Compressor, was cheap, and since many, if not all shops, usually had a lot of air tools around anyways, it was usually only a matter of ensuring that the air that reached the Plasma Cutter, was clean and dry.
Practice changing band saw blades, until it is second nature. Should be a one or at most, two minute job. Only slightly longer if you need to weld up a new blade from stock... Seriously. If it's a "pain", and takes you a lot longer than that, either you are looking at it too hard, trying to make a simple job complicated, or you have an unusually PITA saw! The metal cutting bandsaws that I ran at work, have welders on them, so I could break the blade, and thread it through the work, and weld it back together, so as to deal with inside curves and such. That was the intent. Making replacement blades was a happy side effect!
I should follow my advice more often, really....