I was in a similar situation a few years ago with a broken capsule machine: do I a) buy a new capsule machine, or b) go balls to the walls with a proper semi-auto + coffee grinder. I did the maths on capsules vs coffee beans, and I found that I had to buy incredibly cheap coffee beans and use frugal doses for the coffee beans to even match the capsules in terms of cost per cup. My point is that getting a return on your investment seems unlikely no matter what, so you probably shouldn't base your purchasing decision on that - and rather just go for the best you can get in a given budget.
In any case I'd look into Breville/Sage's The Barista Express. It's not fully automatic in the sense that you get your coffee simply by pushing a button, but it has a built-in grinder and it's fairly compact. You sort of get the best of both worlds I suppose; it would just be a matter of convincing your wife so. Other than that I have no clue what makes for a good fully automatic, but you generally get what you pay for.
In case you're wondering which approach I took, I'll just say that I recently placed a $1750 order on a coffee grinder. I'm telling you, every single hobby is a rabbit hole to some extent.