I like watching mine eat, especially the hatchlings, but I only feed thawed prey. Most of my little ones push the pinky against something to help it go down their throats, but my amazing little lavender Voldermort eats his with the entire front of his body straight up, just swallowing!
I personally find live feeding to be extremely disturbing. I love ALL animals, and hate the idea of something feeling pain and fear as its dying when it doesnt have to be that way.
I also must voice an opinion about the whole breeder vs pet shop thing. If you want to "save animals", buying from a pet shop is the wrong way to go about it. The reason is that if a pet shop keeps their animals improperly, and you buy one, all it tells them is that they made a profit, and its time to order another snake that they can keep in the same poor conditions. You may have gotten one snake out of there, but it opens the door for more animals to suffer.
Plus petshops usually have a poor selection. Normals...yes, they have plenty of those. But you mentioned a caramel motley. Pet shops rarely if ever have something like that! A healthy properly sexed caramel motley from a breeder would make a much better first snake than a possibly non feeding, possibly underweight, possibly mite infested, possibly sick with respiratory problems normal would ANYDAY!!