Unless you have physical access to these types of devices (not likely, given the COVID-19 pandemic), it is very, very difficult to know what the right choice is. It can be a little overwhelming with so many features and options out there. Like a few of us have already said, it is a very personal choice. What youtubers rave about, you might dislike. What someone says is "thin" you might find extremely versatile. You might just have to purchase the first thing and see how it goes. Once you buy, you are immediately in the used synth market. Demand tends to stay high for synths, and you can likely recoup 80% of what you paid. It's a money drain, but you might find a local synth community open to trading.
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I'm going to go slightly left of field here, and recommend another online course (it's free):
I completed this about a month or so ago, and found it really valuable for getting down to the history of electronic music, the fundamental nuts and bolts of electronic sound generation. I figure it might help you towards your end goal by helping to develop your personal preference without needing to buy hardware?
As another alternative, something like a novation launchkey could be another cheap and cheerful way to get your hardware knobs you're looking for, with the flexibility of controlling software synths like VCV rack? I picked one up a second hander on ebay a year or so ago for ~ $50AUD
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Except when I do a live stream with four analog synths sequenced from Tidal 
: https://club.tidalcycles.org/t/live-stream-announcements/317/8?u=kindohm
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the only difference is it doesnt have an internal mic or speaker, also has a bit less processing power but all the patches on there are fairly low power
Update: I went with the Argon 8.
https://tidalcycles.org/index.php/Controller_Input - is this accurate/up to date when it comes to plugging it into Tidal?
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That doc is for when you want to send input from a MIDI controller into Tidal. If the Argon sends MIDI out then you could do that.
Otherwise, if you want to send patterns from Tidal to the Argon, then you'll want to reference this: https://tidalcycles.org/index.php/SuperDirt_MIDI_Tutorial
Congrats on the Argon! 
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Thanks for this @kindohm . I'm still waiting for the synth to arrive via courier but in the meantime...
A follow up question: I watched a bit of your Twitch stream last week, which was really cool. In terms of audio routing: are you just using one laptop/computer for that whole set up? I assume you're using the above method to control those various devices but are you routing the audio from those back into your computer?
Actually i'm remembering now that you had a little mixer, so maybe you're plugging into that and then out to speakers?
The mixer was used specifically for streaming purposes, not for my regular use of synths.
I have an older Focusrite audio interface with 8 inputs. When I play with synths I always plug them into the interface and mix in my DAW. Then I can do a multi-track capture of a Tidal performance.
I have a newer Focusrite with just two inputs. This is my main interface and I just plug my RYTM synth into that, mixing in my DAW with SuperCollider/SuperDirt via JackRouter/JackPilot.
If you are only using external devices, then you could use a mixer. I tend to always mix in digital sounds from SuperCollider so routing everything into my DAW is my preference.
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Gotcha. I was planning on doing something similar. I've not heard of JackRouter/Pilot i assume it's similar to Soundflower? Are you Mac or PC?
I am using a Mac. JackPilot is the UI, and JackRouter is something that runs behind the scenes. Pretty sure I downloaded it from https://jackaudio.org/downloads/. Yes, similar to Soundflower. I've never used Soundflower. The nice thing about Jack is you can create a number of virtual inputs and outputs so you can create as many connections as you need to route to/from any software. I create 8 virtual inputs in Jack so that I can route all of my incoming synths to my DAW, plus inputs for SuperCollider, plus a microphone.
I'd consider taking a look at the BlackHole virtual audio driver: https://github.com/ExistentialAudio/BlackHole. Seems like that is gaining a lot of attention these days.
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Awesome, thanks a lot. I'll check those out!
Hi bohrbug. I've just bought an Axoloti (yay!) Could you tell me if it was straight forward enough to connect it to Tidal? Do you connect via osc? Did you follow any particular instructions? Thanks!
Hi mxwx, Axoloti doest not work with OSC. You shoud use the MIDI port to address it. http://community.axoloti.com/
Just connect the Axo to your computer, and use it as any other hardware synth.
To program the Axoloti, you have to use the patcher : http://www.axoloti.com/axoloti-patcher/
It is very similar as working with the now defunct Nord Modular : https://www.nordkeyboards.com/products/nord-modular-g2
Thanks Bohrbug. I've managed to make it work. For some reason it was a bit glitchy when trying to use the tutorial patches, but it worked when I built one from scratch.