I understand why it's expensive, but as a hobbyist who'd want this for some fun at home, I do wish there were a cheaper standalone device without some of the fancy things like MPE and a battery.
As a hobbyist you can hook up your existing laptop to one of the Novation launchpad models (price ranging from 110€ to 350€) which come with an Ableton Live Lite license.
If you want something standalone, well as said in a previous comment, the Novation Circuit or any of the other grooveboxes in the market can offer interesting workflows.
There is a lot of groove boxes on the market and seems they're getting more and more siblings, which is nice to see!
As a entry-device, Circuit Tracks is nice, immediate and not hard to learn to get your feet wet. It's also way cheaper than Push 3 but obviously a bit more limited.
I agree with you on the Circuit - I haven't owned one but I learned enough to teach someone else the basics (on an original, not the Tracks) and it's very well thought out.
I had a (current model) Electribe and it was a bit frustrating, lots of features are technically there but too fiddly/time-consuming to use.
The OP-Z is not in the Thomann list, but I find that to be excellent - and not expensive compared to the OP-1. A rare example of an experts-only UI, it needs to be learned properly in order to do anything really, but once you know how to do it it's nice.
If Behringer ever releases their "HiroTribe" thing that might be a very compelling option on the budget end of the spectrum.
