Very true, especially because taste (and the calibration of the grinder you receive) don’t always line up with the grind size distributions you see other people make from experimenting. For me it’s always had to be one at a time, compared to what I was using before and returning if the intended upgrade isn’t satisfactory.
It would be amazing if coffee shops started doing equipment tastings/comparisons as well as beans. We have a lot of cool cuppings/tasting courses here, but nothing for hardware.
I feel ya, the number of times I’ve opened up my gear to get just a few more months out of it til the next thing breaks…
If you want to maximize versatility and quality for a good price, I’d consider getting a nice enough espresso-focused grinder and a really high quality hand grinder that can do coarse grinds well. Grinding coarse is fast and easy by hand, and you can get grounds as or more consistent than am electric grinder 3 times the price with something like a 1zpresso. But grinding for espresso can be harder, so that’s one that’s more worth a machine doing the work for you.