I would caution anyone from buying a telescope unless they're planning to use it for astrophotography.
The sad truth is that we're so used to stunning Hubble images that looking through a real eyepiece can be disappointing, even with an expensive and powerful instrument. Affordable instruments are even less satisfying. (I'm basing on that on occasional access to a 20 inch Dobsonian, which is far more powerful than most scopes, but still rather meh visually.)
There's some pleasure to be had in finding your way around the sky, but for impressive images with some wow factor, astrophotography is much more rewarding - but will roughly double the outlay.
Location also matters. If you're in a big city, even the best optics will be wasted, and if you want to buy a portable scope you can take out to good locations, there's the inevitable trade-off between performance and portability.
The ideal is a rural location with minimal smog and light pollution and good weather, where you can set up permanently. Then a good scope can be worth it.
I don't want to seem downbeat, but I went through this a few years ago. If you're in the UK like I am, where we're very lucky to get 50 cloud-free nights a year, it became obvious that the practical limits of weather and location mean that the expense of a good scope is very hard to justify.