A boiler humidifier has a nice random gurgle noise; that could be a plus for some. The water tank can be rather nasty and you know that the water vapor is safer because its steam.

Propane heat emits water vapor too; and if you can have a lot of plants around they add moisture and lots of other good and bad things to the air.

My issues are such that I can have happy plants and benefit from them. For about the power cost of a humidifier i can have an LED lit jungle shelf that transpires more than a gallon of water a day