There is a lot to unpack here. But my suggestion is “cheap” esp32 devboard. At least where I live, going with older / raw MCU (not a “devboard”) will ended up more expensive. I’ll give an example. The STM32F103C8T6 “Blue Pill” cost the same as ESP32 DOIT Devkit (around USD 3). BUT the bare MCU of both cost around 1-5 cent more due to the economy of scale. So unless you plan to design a custom board in bulk/size constraint, buying the devkit and making a daughter board can ended up cheaper