Honestly I think you want to set a budget. And also, you’re really gonna wanna save up to $200~ for something of a high quality- most of these people are small companies, and so they can’t sell cheap. For instance, a Bakeneko65, one of the most popular beginner boards, is $150, and rightfully so. It’s a good quality, pretty, and simple frame that does nothing “wrong”. And then once you consider Aliexpress is like factory -> consumer, vs others who are a middleman, you get less profit margin worries there. I spent $350 total on my 2 boards- both are extremely practical builds. My first is a gaming board w/ green switches, it’s a simple, $150 build with all the basic mods (foam, etc), and it’s made to be pretty, but be hella responsive. My second, $200, is a split keyboard with more custom keycaps and so on. I could’ve spent only $160 on it, but I splurged on an artwork, and making it fit perfectly for me. Had I chosen the cheaper option, it wouldn’t be “ideal”.
In the end we need a budget, a design goal, and to realize this is a niche hobby with majority indie companies who don’t have the scaled economy to produce shit en masse, and are perfecting an artwork, not just a product. If you want practical and cheap, you could buy a membrane, or a $50 Logitech G (it’s on sale rn!) for instance. Its quality won’t be as high, its aesthetics and fine design isn’t as detailed, but it does a job well enough. And also, it’s really hard to trust Aliexpress- I’ve gotten scam things and high quality hand soldered stuff there. So it’s hard to make suggestions and so on for “super budget” of $50~. $300< is what I’m used to as the standard range, as it’s where the majority of good quality, good design things are found.
Keychron is the ideal begineer pick imo. Good quality, good everything, fits all budgets. Choose what you like and can afford, then you can slowly mod it, buy new switches (Akko’s are amazing!), switch out the keycaps, maybe add a mod, etc.