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You have to spend about double to get something noticeably better. The main thing the expensive machines does better is having a dual boiler so you can steam and brew at the same time. Whereas the Gaggia is single boiler so if you can imagine if you steam, thus boiler is heating water to 100c, and then you go and brew, it has to drop the temp (you flush the system), in order to get best coffee. An expensive machine will have dual boiler so you can do both. Also a bigger boiler so it can do more without waiting for it to heat up the next cup of water.
Those are the main part, of course, build quality, more dials, etc also applies.
But do not forget a Burr grinder too, get an electric one if you want less faff. Manual grinder is fun for the first couple of times but who wants to do that first thing in the morning.
In a hard water area like mine, I wouldn't want to keep that descaled. Monstrous amount of faffing around. That's the other big advantage of the Aeropress.
Had my machine for over 10 years now and I think I descaled it twice, ever, not out of necessity, but because I was doing a deep clean with all the parts, changing seals and did it anyway.
I've had Tassimo and Dolce Gusto machines that people got me as presents. Both of them scaled up within a few months. You can descale them, but I prefer the coffee that I get from the Aeropress anyway, and it's a lot less hassle.
I did try the reusable pods in the Dolce Gusto machine. They were ok, but they were more fiddling around than the Aeropress, and they didn't last that long - probably only 30 or 40 cups.
Some beans are more oily (Italian blends, darker roasts, coffee marketed as "stronger" (total bollocks, it's just burnt)).
Also, some beans grind very consistently (typically a medium roast Brazil) and others are very messy, breaking into lots of different sizes (such as a very light roast Ethiopian, or the worst in the world - monsoon malabar).
Monsooned malabar is delicious if you get it right, but it's nightmarish to grind for espresso. I like it as a moka pot, but it's messy.
Laslty, taste is subjective. I aim for a good extraction with coffee - some coffees, like fine wines, are not necessarily my favourite but are interesting, offering peachy, tea flavours, or really distinct cherries, and in one particularly interesting coffee, when brewed pour over and timed right, it had a summer fruits-esque flavour.
But if you want a good, chocolatey coffee that balances with milk, or makes a decent black coffee, I can 100 percent recommend Rave fudge blend. It's a medium blend that has massive fudgey flavour when made in a moka pot.
Best aeropress coffee, for me, is light roasts - these are fruitier. If brewed in a moka pot, these flavours are lost to the bitterness - an aeropress or French press really let's those flavours sing.
In short... Without a scientific analysis of extraction, there are plenty of reasons why some coffees taste good and others bad! Consistency is king - if you want to get good, I recommend scales (for coffee and water), a timer and a high tolerance to caffeine