Improved Metamagic feat (epic) clarification

Question

I wonder if I am interpreting this feat wrongly or not. Reading the epic feat "Improved Metamagic" it seems to me that, if taken multiple times it considerably outshines the other epic feats that reduce cost of metamagic such as "Automatic Quicken Spell" (191 Complete Arcane) or "Automatic Silent Spell" (191 Complete Arcane) or "Automatic Still Spell" (191 Complete Arcane).

As an example, taking Improved Metamagic three times allows me to cast quickened spells of any level simply increasing the cast level of 1. Whereas, taking "Automatic Quickened Spells" three times would allow me to cast quickened spells without metamagic increase, but only for spells of level 0 to 3.

So I wondered:

What are the limitation of Improved Metamagic (DMG) in comparison to the other 3 feats mentioned above? And, if there are scenarios in which one of the three would be preferred over "Improved Metamagic"?

Answer 1

You are reading the feat right

The feat says explicitly under its Special section:

You can gain this feat multiple times. The effects stack, though you can't lower the level of any metamagic spell's slot to less than one level higher than normal.

So, quite clearly, you can reduce the slot increment with this feat down to one level higher than normal. But not to 0 slots, that is the limitation.

The Automatic X Spell feats allow you to reduce the increment to 0 slots for lower level spells. Either to cast them quickened, or silently, or still. You would take that if it is more important to you than affecting all your spells. (Quickend adds one more level beyond 1st each time you take it repeatedly, the other two allow you to cast level 0-3 spells still or silent the first time you take them, and three more levels each time you repeatedly take them, so you can get up to level 9 spells if you take them 3 times).

If that would be preferable is up to you. I personally would prefer to quicken my spells over casting them still or silent, as this tends to be much more relevant in combat, and would prefer to quicken all my spells down to 1 incremental level, rather than low-level spells to 0, as higher level spells likewise tend to be much more impactful in combat.