Yes, you are correct in avoiding Bambu. They have been pretty awful to their community, the open source community, and the media.

Prusa will be one of the most solid and reliable options you can get, reportedly amazing customer service and their machines are very repairable. However, if you have a tight budget, it won’t be as good “value” (at least purely based on performance), where Prusa is surpassed by printers like the Elegoo Centauri Carbon, Qidi Q2 (both CoreXY), and Sovol SV06 Ace (bedslinger). If you want multiple toolheads, Snapmaker’s U1 is neat and a lot cheaper than the equivalent Prusa XL.

Prusa has lots of great machines, but the “big dog” is definitely the Core One, which will later have the INDX tool changer upgrade path which is nest! If you’re okay with bedslingers, you have their MK4S as well as the Mini (which has a smaller build volume than most, check what kind of models you want to print first!)

TLDR: Elegoo, Qidi, Sovol, and Prusa all have great printers (many of which are far better value than Bambu machines to be honest, plus they will be more open too with better compatibility with third-party software), though Prusa is the most reliable and trustworthy. I believe Elegoo, Qidi, and Prusa all have their own versions of a multi material system, and Snapmaker (and later Prusa with the INDX) offer tool changers if that’s your jam.

pricing progression right now is sort of like this in my opinion:

• used market (e.g. older Prusa models)
• Sovol SV06 Ace (note: bedslinger!)
• Elegoo Centauri (no enclosure, CoreXY)
• Elegoo Centauri Carbon (enclosure, CoreXY)
• Qidi Q1 Pro or Q2 (CoreXY)
• Prusa MK4S (note: bedslinger!)
• Prusa Core One (CoreXY)