I can't say what is the best, but I went with the Ender 5 Pro (refurbished to save some money) after talking with my sister and her husband who have been 3d printing for years. The only upgrade I found desirable out of the gate was adding a BLTouch for auto-leveling. I may do other things in the future, but for now it does all the stuff I need and it does it pretty well.
Be aware that if you want to do more than print what others have designed you're also going to need to learn to use some design software (I've used Fusion 360, 3D Builder, and Tinkercad so far myself).
A BL Touch is nice, but the only time I have to level is when I change to a different type of filament. And even then it's just a matter of printing a large square that you can "feel" as it prints to get the right level. Stop, remove and then print. I'm just saying all the "little things" aren't really needed to get decent prints. It's nice to be able to "read" the machine and see what's off as opposed to relying on the Touch.....(plus I'm cheap, lol).
I did a lot of research between the Ender 3 vs Ender 5. The Ender 3 seemed like it was preferred everywhere I went (but I have zero experience with the Ender 5, so take that with a grain of salt).
The newer Ender 3's have thermal runway protection (mine is a little older, I had to flash the eeprom to have this).
Creality Ender 3 vs Ender 5: The Differences | All3DP
This and then some! I myself use FreeCad (can't beat the price, and it will run on a potato). The infinite university of youtube provided the initial tutorials to get me rolling with it.
Respectfully,
James
Fusion 360 is free for personal / hobby use.
There's a pretty big learning curve, but what a great program. I've spent a lot of time with it and only just begun to scratch the surface.
Fusion 360 for Personal Use | Fusion 360 | Autodesk