It's odd that you went from one end of the spectrum (trying to refine your technique and failing) to the complete opposite (a Keurig). Surely there's a middle ground.
For example, the Rancilio Silvia [1] is known to be one of the best and most tweakable/hackable home machines for manually brewed espresso. It can make great Italian espresso out of the box, but there's also a healthy community around it that hacks the internals to brew at better temperatures and so on. It's also very affordable.
Personally, I have a Jura Ena, because I like just pressing one button to get my coffee, and it's fantastic.
I used to have a Gaggia Classic with an updated steam wand that did pretty well. I think it ranks well against the Racillio and is cheaper. It's basically the cheapest decent machine you can buy, AFAIK. People also hack it, with PID controller mods and such.
For example, the Rancilio Silvia [1] is known to be one of the best and most tweakable/hackable home machines for manually brewed espresso. It can make great Italian espresso out of the box, but there's also a healthy community around it that hacks the internals to brew at better temperatures and so on. It's also very affordable.
Personally, I have a Jura Ena, because I like just pressing one button to get my coffee, and it's fantastic.
[1] https://www.seattlecoffeegear.com/rancilio-silvia-espresso-m...