If I were starting msfs again now, I’d pay a lot of attention to the top 10 aircraft as posted in the forum :
I’d pick from the top 30 aircraft, those which I had an interest in. I would then take those across to youtube (Jonathan Beckett; Into the Blue Simulations….et al) and watch their reviews. Only then would I choose. (and I would definitely wait for the Black Friday sales coming soon).
Logically, a lot of people voted an aircraft into the top 10 in particular, so it can’t be that bad.
Having this ‘opinion’ (which is all it is) when I started, would have saved me a lot of money over the last 2 years.
Good luck.
Edit : don’t confine yourself too much with a cash limit, one really good aircraft may well give your more ‘bang for buck’ than 2 mediocre ones.