STMicroelectronics, NXP and Infineon are all European companies. I'm not as familiar with Infineon but all 3 produce development boards and I know that the first 2 have IDEs that include configurator tools that provide you a UI to configure device features that spit out a bunch of HAL code which makes it more accessible for hobbyists.
Some baby boomers are burning through their retirement savings to pay for cancer treatments. Then they have to go back to work.
If the amount of energy you use is consistently reasonably low, then you are paying more per unit of energy than someone who uses a large amount of energy.l because of the standing charge.
If the standing charge is removed, then users with low energy consumption would pay less, users with high energy consumption would pay more, and the energy companies would make the same amount overall (assuming they don't use the opportunity to increase revenue)
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Anyone can buy stuff from most suppliers like RS, Digikey and Mouser, Farnell have CPC that anyone can buy stuff from too, at least in the UK this is the case.
The other manufacturers I mentioned also target their development boards at business applications to trial devices before designing them into a product, but a competent hobbyist would have no problem using them, it's just at a much more involved level than Arduino etc. The HAL libraries and code generation that come with the manufacturer IDEs/SDKs now make the gap pretty small to just get started though.
If I was going to recommend one manufacturer then I'd say an STM32 Nucleo or Discovery board within your budget would be a good place to get started with this typel of microcontroller board.