Thank You Madasa for these caveats & suggestions.
Following your suggestion, I've been studying the Chinese brands that you mentioned. So far, it seems one gets very good specifications for reasonable money. I will assume tech support is non-existant, but there's always Android Forums to the rescue. (And the people here have given me far more useful support than the manufacturer of my existing phone possibly could.)
The Poco X3 NFC that you mentioned looks amazing for the money. The only place I've found it for sale so far is eBay, shipped form China. I couldn't find the pricing & purchase information on the Mi site. Hopefully soon a US vendor will have it.
I had a moment of guilt about buying a Chinese phone until I searched where the USA brand names & Nokia (Finland name) brands are physically made. (So much for that guilt.) I was surprised to find the Moto name is now owned by Lenovo & Nokia name is owned by a different Finish company.
Thankfully, my wife let me hijack her phone so I don't have to be in a giant rush to choose. Soon, but not an emergency.