I hear about people getting their fonts mastered for commercial release
Is there any reason why an .otf exported from glyphs would not be ready for commercial sale and ready to go on both both pc/mac & creative suite/quark etc…?
Also, has anybody released a commercial file using autohint when exporting from glyphs?
any reason why this would not be acceptable if alignment zones etc. are set up correctly?
Yes. If it works, it works. You must do a lot of testing and correct where necessary. Test PS hinting in Adobe apps; and TT hinting on Windows, in Word, Edge, Chrome, and Firefox. Learn how to use the Zoom function on the Mac (see System Preferences > Accessibility).
Sometimes, a font cannot be autohinted because the paths do not lend themselves for autohinting, but most regular designs should be fine.