Flair Espresso - NEO

Go manual. W the flair neo you'll have a small pf, which will let you grind coarser. Keep your machine on the side in case you want to steam milk, a handheld milk frother is also enough for me if I pull a bad shot or want lattes.

Rare? The Flair Neo is available on Amazon for 120 bucks with overnight delivery where I live. If you mean machines with boilers, there are definitely fewer lever than E61 options but lever machines are dead simple to maintain. I completely disassembled and re-sealed my vintage LaPavoni with basic hand tools and OEM gaskets purchased from Amazon.

I have the Flair, which is similar and it works great

If you want long lasting, get a Flair manual machine and a kettle. The o-rings last a decade of daily use and are fairly standard so you can replace as needed. Otherwise, there is nothing that can fail. 

Is the flair neo available there? If so, it's pretty great 

What is your budget? The profitec pro800 and the flair neo are both lever machines but are completely different beasts.

A flair is great if you like straight espresso shots, but for milk drinks it seems like a very suboptimal solution.

If they just want to learn about coffee notes and tasting: Maybe something like the Flair Neo (a completely manual machine, as in you pull a lever to make the coffee) and a KinGrinder k6 will be just over 200 combined. A scale will still be needed, and you can't do frothing with this setup.

I went from a Flair Neo to Flair Classic. It’s great for me, I make 2 shots per day. It can be time consuming doing more, but you can make it work. I love it because it takes up less space. Looking back id start with a Classic over the Neo

The only machine in that price point to my knowledge that can do 9 bars is the Flair Neo.

Get the cheapest Flair. Your real problem is the grinder. I recommend Kingrinder K6, but it takes some work to grind for espresso

Used Flair Neo / Pro if you can. If not, I'd pick the Picopresso.

I'll be real with you. Do you drink light roast espresso? Do you drink coffee without syrup? Do you wish to learn latte art? It all depends on how passionate you are with the hobby. If you just want good, old fashioned espresso without worrying too much about prep, then no you don't need an expensive machine. However, I'd argue that you'd want a somewhat expensive grinder. For some, they consider DF grinders expensive already. So invest on a DF54/64/83 and combo it with a cheap espresso maker like a Bambino Plus or a manual one like a Flair Neo. As you grow further into the hobby, you might end up just needing to upgrade your entry level machine. For now, just get a good grinder first.