I would very highly recommend the VKB Gladiator, it is a significant improvement over products from Logitech and Thrustmaster, both in terms of build quality and feel / precision in use. The calibration and configuration software is also powerful and versatile. I found it a little unintuitive at first, but there is lots of help available out there, not least from VKB themselves on their forum and YT channel.
In the US, the Premium version of the NXT Evo is $165.00 and the separate throttle quadrant (which you can attach to either side of the Gladiator) is $70.00, so before P&P it falls well within your budget. The Premium version of the stick offers an additional rapid-fire trigger and a couple of 8-way hats in place of the standard buttons, which extra options I found useful.
Personally I would suggest adding the SEM module too for another $70.00, as this gives you a load of extra useful buttons, rockers, a 4-way rotary, a dedicated ‘Start’ button and dedicated controls for landing gear and flaps. You can adjust the number of detents in the flaps control between a simple extend / retract or up to 4 different specific positions. This obviously takes a load of controls off of the keyboard and mouse, which I found really helpful. Together with the throttle and the premium stick that’s $305.00 in total before postage, although you could save $30.00 by going for the ‘Standard’ version of the stick to stay strictly within budget.
Here’s my one in that hotas configuration described:
