Having owned a couple low end printers, the ender 3 is my favorite budget option.
I've installed a couple upgrades, some of which I 3d printed on the printer itself, but my favorite ones are the borosilicate glass bed with a thermal pad to help spread out the heat quickly, and a dual z axis stepper motor.
If you're not into tinkering, I've heard good things about Bambu, although I do not know much about them myself. Apparently they're more user-friendly.
I enjoy working on my devices, but I would like something with more reliability than "recalibrate everything for every single print" sometimes.
It really is a hobby where spending just a little bit more will get you a ton of extra features and user experience.
"while not criminal"
Hmmm. Making threats? Of a political nature in order to coerce change?
In my neck of the woods, we call that "domestic terrorism", but they freely admit that to the world: