Welcome to the upgraditis rabbit hole. Beware, it may become an obsessive addiction where $250 scales and $100+ tampers become justifiable purchases.

I too started with a similar single boiler thermoblock machine paired in a package with a stepped grinder. That lasted for almost a year before upgrading to a plumbed in rotary pump e61 and stepless doser grinder. Big improvement on overall espresso quality that lasted over 10 years. The machine finally needed an overhaul and upgraditis bit again.

A commercial group lever replaced the e61 HX along with a new grinder. Great improvement there.

It depends on what your extraction quality goals are and your budget. Anything you get to save money on might be lost if you're inspired to upgrade sooner than later. A good used e61 machine paired with a solid used grinder like a Niche Zero or DF64 or a stepless doser from any commercial grade manufacturer would give you the tools to improve your milk steaming and espresso extractions. With the machine, an e61 group is a common part so the choice there would be heat exchanger or double boiler, PID temp control or pressurestat, flow control or not. The more refined the options the more expensive the machine. A used good condition E61 HX with pressurestat control should be the most reasonably priced.

Or you could skip the common second stage upgraditis solution and go right for a lever. They're popular right now and for a reason. They offer extraction control that rivals machines that are much more expensive. I find mine to be like a manual transmission performance vehicle; the increased hands on makes it so much more fun to drive and once you get a feel for the control there's so much more you can do compared to a standard semi automatic pump driven machine. The steaming is really good too.

This might start an upgraditis rabbit hole but check out the Home Barista Guide to Espresso. It's pretty comprehensive.

A Niche Zero and a Linea Micra might be perfect for your needs. Probably about as close as you can get to banging out a perfect espresso for milk and really good steam to boot, so making perfect milk should be a breeze. The Niche is a reasonably priced single dosing conical grinder perfect for traditional espresso.

There will be lots of other suggestions, all of which are valid. It sounds like you're more interested in the result than the process and both of the machines should be perfect for that. Perfect milk drinks with the least amount of drama with tools that just work and look good doing it.

As always, IMHO. I've neo had one in my hands yet but all the people I know who have, seem to have come away with that impression.

Unless you're looking to move into light-roast espresso and probably straight shots, this becomes a "one from column A, one from column B" kind of thing. Once out of entry-level machines, the better machines in each price class will provide solid, classic espresso and be reasonably forgiving in doing so. The tradeoffs among them are mainly in terms of price and workflow, with a bit of slight bend in flavor profile in some cases.

Ones that I would consider include

Column A:
* 1Zpresso K-series (or similar hand grinder)
* Option-O Mini Moonshine
* Niche Zero
* Acaia Orbit
* Option-O P64

Column B:
* Breville Dual Boiler
* Lelit Mara X
* Lelit Elizabeth
* Bianca / Synchronika / Profitec Pro 700 -- maybe the new Chris Coffee Sorella (I don't know much about this one)
* La Marzocco Micra

Edit: If it plays out, I'd include the Argos Odyssey in the list. "Commercial-group" levers can be excellent, once they've warmed up. They and most E61s, including those listed above, take 30 minutes to an hour from cold until they're ready. I've gotten very spoiled by machines of various types that are 10 minutes from "I think I want an espresso" to enjoying one.

I wouldn't hesitate to pair a La Marzocco Micra with a Mini Moonshine -- the first shots I pulled on the Micra were with the Mini and they were very good from the first shot. My hesitations on the Mini would be around if you were expecting to make more than a couple shots at a time. It isn't intended to be a high-volume grinder.

I haven't had a DF83 in hand so I can't comment on the workflow. I'm well aware of the challenges with the DF64 in getting good alignment at grind gap. Getting a clean wipe only tells you the unloaded alignment at that point. There are execution problems in the DF64 related to parts not being "square" so that when you rotate the adjustment collar the burrs are no longer parallel. This was foreshadowed by the common instruction to try the upper carrier in each of the three position to see which is best. Something with reasonable axial symmetry shouldn't be wildly different rotating things 120°. If it is, you're probably getting to one of the "bad" points as you change the grind setting. The DF64 has what I consider design flaws on several fronts including too much flex in the adjustment collar and inadequate motor mounts. Another flaw is that the bellows are directly attached to the floating carrier. If you press down on them, the burr gap changes -- ugly, but it means you need do remove your basket before using the bellows.

Alignment, burr gap that doesn't change under load, and repeatable adjustment of burr gap are, in my opinion, keys to high-quality grinders. Right now I don't trust any of the "inexpensive" Asian imports or unproven grinders like the Zerno to be able to deliver on that out of the box for virtually all buyers. As Jake's examination found, even having a "clean wipe" at touch may be significantly off at typical espresso grind gaps.

Wattage doesn't tell me much more than a number the manufacturer put on a nameplate. Hand grinders are probably 10 W or less and do a great job. The Zhang Ultra, from what I understand, sucked several hundred Watts without any beans in it due to how it dealt with preloading the bearings. One of the significant changes with LeverCraft Ultra was a redesign of that portion of the grinder. Delivered torque at grinding speeds seems like what matters to me. Will it slow down or stall under load? Will it grind your choice of beans, no matter how hard, at espresso-level fineness?

83 mm grinders are still a bit challenging for burr choices. That may improve in the future or you may be at the whim of Mazzer and SSP on what they manufacture and distribute.