If you love neo-grotesques, you can't do much better than Neue Haas Grotesk or Atlas Grotesk [2]. Both are by CommercialType, both cost a pretty penny, but both are absolutely amazing.
I fully agree with you about wanting beautiful and pleasing characters though. It's my gift to myself for being paperfree. If I'm going to read on screen instead of printed, I want the best possible experience. 32" 4K display, professional fonts, nice software for writing in etc.