All my friends knew I was a pretty good home auto mechanic and knew cars. I was very good at diagnoses as well. But what happened more than once was, 'Hey Look! I bought this car. What do you think? Can you fix it?"
My response? "Uhh.. why didn't you call me before you bought it?"

There would be no need for a vote recount if someone came to this forum and asked about an espresso machine with a builtin grinder. The consensus would be, "Don't." With your topic heading, the response would be closer to, "Don't even think about it!!" If you had done your research, the phrase, "Eight grind settings" should have been all the information you needed to just turn around and walk away. I do not consider myself an average home barista, but with that said, I just paid more for upgraded burrs for my two year old grinder than you likely paid for your espresso machine. And, yes, it was worth it.

Based on all that, and looking at the subject's title, you can see that you need to rethink where you are, where you are going, and more importantly, how much you want to spend. Two decades ago, the go-to grinder and espresso machine setup cost nearly double what your Delonghi cost.

Unless you can return the Delonghi for "buyer's remorse" and reinvest, the depreciation would indicate that you can take the loss now and sell it used, or use it to learn how to get the most out of it.

I agree with many of the comments above. Here's what I would add. Don't expect to buy once. Buy well for now. Decide on a budget, tell us your tastes in espresso and coffee. Tell us experiences you've had with really good espresso and what you can envision achieving over the next year or two. If you get into this with an expectation of learning, the equipment and coffee become tools for creating an enjoyable, evolving beverage. If you stay with this, your tastes will change and maybe broaden. I suggest buying tools of sufficient quality that they'll retain value for the next person who is at your current stage in the journey while helping fund your next upgrade.

If on the other hand you want equipment with a pedigree but don't have a passion and humility for improving the coffee experience, you can spend a lot and the novelty will fade. You may re-sell after losing interest.

Agreed- no one "right" grinder. I am very pleased that I bought a Lelit PL53 to start. Noisy, slow... but great for single dosing (remove the front "nose" and pull out grinds with the end of a spoon) or "normal". Crazy-fine step less adjustment, and "quality espresso". I used it for a few years, then upgraded (Atom 75). I keep the PL53 for field trips ... where it is much more convenient than a cheap hand grinder.
Have fun!
S

I would agree that you can get a lot of miles out of a Niche Zero, from dark to medium roasts, and some medium light. This includes the chocolate/caramel/cola/wine-amaretto flavors to fruity orange/berry/tropical.