Given no limit on funds I'd definitely recommend the official Prusa i3 Mk2 hands down. It's an amazing machine and super user friendly based on what I've heard from everyone I know who has one. But at about $700 or so it's not the cheapest way to get started
I love my Folger 2020 i3 and when I got it about a year and a half ago I'd say it was one of if not the best deal out there. I still think it's a pretty good deal but I don't know if it's the best anymore. I'm not really in the market for a printer so I haven't been actively researching but there are a lot of of <$300 options out there now some of which look better.
The Folger has some issues. I almost hesitate to call it a kit - it's more a box of parts you can use to build a printer from if you do some research. The instructions are mostly good but have a few glaring omissions and errors. And the provided firmware is out of date (or at least was when I built mine.) So it's a good deal...but not really great for beginners - unless they're up for a challenge and really like the idea of building their own printer.
Which is exactly what I wanted. I didn't want to buy a printer...I wanted to build one. I wanted to build one more than I wanted to save money. For many of the same reasons I like to build planes and quads instead of buying ARF's and RTF's. I enjoy the build as much or more than the finished product. Heck that's the same reason that my printer a year and a half after buying it is still a work in process and looks considerably different than it did when first assembled
The nice thing about the folger is that while folger itself isn't bad at customer service...they're also not great...but they've sold so many printers that there's a big community out there of people with them and they are outstanding at providing support. Not to mention a steady stream of ideas for upgrades and modifications if you're into that.
If you're looking for something a little less hands up and more beginner friendly...but still don't mind making some changes your self then the wanhao i3 and derivatives (like the hyperion FT is selling) have a lot of good rep. I've also seen dls do some nice work with his printers and they've sounded pretty trouble free for him and others I know with similar ones.
Honestly the big problem right now is there are too many great affordable options
Rather than any specific recommendations I'd give a few general things I'd suggest:
Stick with a cartesian printer not a delta for your first one. Deltas are cool...but considerably more work to setup and get working reliably. I've seen even some experienced printer builders brought nearly to tears in frustration when they tried a delta
Autoleveling is nice, but not necessary. You can almost always add it to a printer later fairly cheaply.
A heated bed is IMHO pretty much a must have. Without it you'll be limited to only PLA. And PETG/TPU/ABS are much more interesting materials (that said I do about 95% of my printing in PLA because it's cheap and easy...but I do most of my "final" prints in petg because i prefer it's properties.)
200mm x 200mm is pretty much the standard size...but smaller isn't necessarily a deal breaker. I VERY seldom come close to using the full 200x200 print bed on my machine. That said if you want to print planes...you'll need the full 200x200.
All metal hot ends are nice - but PTFE lined is simpler and less troublesome with PLA as well as a lot cheaper...and will do ABS and PETG as long as you're careful about not going too hot. You can always change to a different hot end later if you want to print PETG hotter, or get into exotic materials like Nylon and Polycarbonate.
Personally even on a machine that's ready to print out of the box I'd stick with something that is based on open source designs and runs Marlin for it's controller. The less proprietary the setup the more options you have down the road.
Do some google searches, check facebook for user groups, check the reprap forums for other users, search thingiverse for upgrade/replacement parts. Finding a community of users for a machine before buying can be a lifesaver.