I just picked up a Gaggia Classic 2019 manufactured in March 2023. I was originally wanting to get the new EVO model, but it is not available where I am living right now which is a bummer, but I am not at all disappointed with the 2019 model as it is making very good espresso. I have owned 5 different machines over the decades, some in the many thousands of dollars that needed to be plumbed in, and thus have been spoiled with good espresso. I was not expecting the Gaggia to be so good out of the box with just a few insights like temp surfing and all the other espresso workflow best practices. Like I am actually very surprised how good it is and all of my family and parents in law feel the same way. I knew it was a solid machine, but this is rather unexpected. I feel zero need to modify or upgrade as it would be pointless. Maybe my tastebuds have changed as I have gotten older, but this thing is seriously on par with any no frills high end machine when used right IMO. I can see why it is so well reviewed and recommended. So glad I picked it up as I was considering a more expensive machine again but felt it was too big for my current space.
I read about those older steam wands. What a disaster. They really damaged their rep for sure as I considered one back when this was the wand and passed as a result.
I'll be honest. I've had automatic steam wands for most of my espresso life. Since I never understood the difference, I spent years complaining about cold foam wrt the Gaggia because I watched online tutorials on steaming. When I finally discovered it, it was magical (and then I screwed up and let my machine get mold in it thanks to an extended non-use for medical reasons).
When I finally got a machine with a traditional wand, I was making better froth on day one than the auto-wand did. Yes, it took me a month or two to really improve my froth (and I'm still learning), but the worst manual froth has been better than the best I could get out of an auto-wand.
That will always be a funny story about trying to get nice hot steam out of an automatic wand.