PETG is truly a pain!! You’d think with a plastic used in water bottles, it would do better with moisture. I recommend the brand CC3D if you want something reliable (and ultra cheap!) Also remember that PETG needs more room between the nozzle and the build plate (higher z offset) so that the filament doesn’t stick to the nozzle and make a mess :)
Prusa is top of the line for open source and very much falls into “works out of the box”. The other bed-slinger style printers like Ender are cheap but tend to have issues and are a money-sink for upgrades to get them working (lots of mods there). If you’re into hacking and modding stuff though, look into Voron printers. I’m not sure if any of the Voron versions fall into your budget, but you can buy a kit or do open-source. They’re self-built, extremely fast, customizable, and really meant for the people in the printing community who like to program and mod things.
I’ve had some good times journaling, but it’s been hard for me to start up as a regular practice. I never know what to write about. Do you have any suggestions from your own experience on what to focus on for someone that’s just getting started?