Went for the Helor 101 in the end, combination of quality and availability (and lust of course). My situation is pretty much like yours with only moka pot coffee to this point, French press is intriguing to me.
My pots handle is in worse shape than yours...
Yeah had the pot the wrong way round on my job and the flame was too high.
Going to replace it with an Alessi 18/10 at some point in time. Just have to trick my mind into spending £100 on a stovetop...
I'm not sure I'm ready to drop £200 on a hand grinder. And the handground is a nice middle ground, and is bigger than you think. See photo for scale