Have you ever tried the Breville Barista Express? It's the only manual machine we sell at SLT, but we don't really demo it so I've never actually tasted what the quality is like.
And yes, I have sold lots of substandard espresso machines.

Honestly I'm fine with Nespresso, because they're both inexpensive and convenient, and when you buy one you don't really expect to get world class espresso in the first place. But it's the people who want to drop $3000 on a Jura that make me go "wtf".