This thread has the same problems as most:

1. It's not very clear from most peoples' posts whether what they are saying is based on actual experience.

2. People are asserting "better" or "good" or whatever in terms of espresso, but no one has explained what they mean by that.

Coffee is frustrating, because you don't get to just turn up the dial on all factors that are desirable. Invariably, to improve one factor, you have to compromise on another. So what "good" espresso means to anyone isn't obvious.

There are at least three different main ways that espresso could be "good":

A. The "classic" shot, where the most important things are really body and mouthfeel, acidity is the enemy and aroma is shoved out of the way for body and mouthfeel.

B. The, uhh, let's call it "specialty" shot, where the most important thing is emphasising aroma, being the most distinctive thing about coffee, and distinctiveness being the heart of "specialty" coffee. You'll usually have to accept more acidity than for a "classic" shot.

C. The "realistic" shot, where really what is happening is that you are accepting that the quality of the roasted or green coffee that you have is not very good, and the most important thing is to minimise undesirable characteristics like bitterness and aroma (because the aroma from the coffee is probably bad).

To be very blunt, category C is probably the most predominant and important, because most roasters are not very good and green coffee that has no aromas that you want to minimise is probably pretty rare. If you are drinking a blend or not paying a premium for your coffee, you are very likely in category C.

I doubt that there's one "best" machine, just like none of these types of shots are necessarily the "best". In all likelihood, it's probably different machines that are best at producing shots of those different styles.

Of course, the internet being what it is, I'm sure someone will be along shortly to assert that they drink only the finest coffee and their coffee doesn't contain any compromises; they somehow extract full aroma and have massive body and mouthfeel

And of course there are also a whole bunch of things that are important that are nothing to do with what is in the cup. One thing that is important in a "small cafe" and perhaps less important than home is user-friendliness for your baristas. If you can hire fewer staff, or less skilled and cheaper staff, that's probably a good thing, but it might run contrary to cup quality.