Dan,
The Grizzly G0704 and PM25MV are very similar, but there are a few differences I found important. The PM's ways are ground; Grizzly's are comparatively rough. The PM has a belt drive, Very smooth and quiet. The Grizzly has a plastic gear drive. The gears have a history of breaking and are noisy. If you ever want to convert to CNC, you have to grind out part of the saddle on the Grizzly so the ball screw/nut will fit. The PM has more room and it's just a pretty straightforward bolt on conversion. If you don't want CNC, but want to install scales and DRO, Grizzly's angled base makes installing the scale on the Y axis a whole lot more more work. The Grizzly is less expensive, but you get more overall quality on the PM (IMO). Franco's Youtube video comparing the two machines helped me decide which of the two machines I wanted. I had previously read about the G0704's gear problems and that alone kept me from pulling the trigger and kept me reading rather than buying.
If you don't convert to CNC, I believe a DRO is a must. Counting turns of the handwheels to position the work is really doing it the hard way and slows everything down. I cut one part, a very simple one, and a DRO became a no-brainer. High quality magnetic scales are way better than the glass ones, but are also way more money.
FWIW, I've cut steel on my mill and its done just fine. I'm sure the Grizzly would do the same.
Gary