re: Home espresso machines worth it?

If you're not really a huge coffee drinker, then upgrading to a real espresso machine is likely going to be lost on you. You won't notice a difference and likely find the process on a real machine to be tedious and not worth the extra effort or costs involved. It's kinda like if you prefer your steak to be medium well/well done covered in steak sauce, then there really isn't any point in ordering the wagyu over the NY strip.

I tell novice coffee drinkers (or even folks who love coffee, but are not huge espresso purists) to stick with nespresso or a highly automated machine as you will get more enjoyment out of that than you would a better more manual machine.