As Kestrel said, motorcycles aren't that much harder to learn, though I started on a semi-automatic Honda Wave.

What they said about why they're more expensive isn't quite accurate; a new Honda Wave is 800-1200 USD out the door here in Vietnam. The Honda Grom has the same engine in America, a little bit nicer trim. It costs 4000, plus dealer fees. The scooter isn't more expensive to manufacture in America, they just know since nobody else is selling an 800 dollar scooter, by increasing prices, they can force anybody who wants a basic scooter to pay 5x more.

That said, scooters and smaller motorbikes are dead simple to work on. Scooters are a little more complicated since the CVT usually has its own oil system you have to change periodically, but still very easy to work on.

As far as utility goes, a light-weight motorcycle with a rack will carry anything a scooter will and can weigh just as little. I can fit 2 medium suitcases in the side-racks of my bike (they fold outwards), and a large one on top, or just tie as many grocery bags as I like to the rear rack, plus I can hang a couple sandwiches from 1 mirror and a couple coffees from the other when I want to go have lunch in a nice place.

Maintaining 65+ on a highway literally requires me to pin the throttle and sit in an aerodynamic tuck, if you want the capability to go long distances on highways without doing that, you probably want more than 12 HP. But it's a moot point in America because for the same price as a new 13 hp vespa or Honda ADV160 or more-than-only-technically-highway-capable Yamaha xmax, you can get a much more capable machine.

Be super careful about unknown name amazon scooters and bikes. Often they have lawnmower engines and pretty much the worst suspension you can imagine.

If you're thinking about looking for a used bike, make a thread in a motorcycle comm, I'm sure some lemmings would be happy to look at the deals in your area and make some recommendations.

Here's my current bike, it's carried me across SEA twice:

I'm sure you've thought of this, but maybe just get a motorcycle? They're not that much harder to ride than a Vespa, and while they're a bit more dangerous, most of the danger either way is getting hit by a car...

A lot of what made Vespa-type scooters historically pretty cheap was the 2-stroke motors, which are being phased out because they're unreliable and bad for the environment. But, they were cheap. Unfortunately, as you've discovered, the 4-stroke scooters are now much more expensive. And for whatever reason we're not importing a lot of electric scooters (tho where I live people love renting those Lime scooters, but you can't like, buy an equivalent vehicle).

Random thought that may not be helpful: When I lived in NYC there were lots of delivery guys with electric scooters. Maybe try to find out where they're getting them?