Trying to select theme – too many choices

I’m trying to choose a theme for my website, and am So conFUSed by all the choices. Here are my criteria:
> It’s a basic business website with a blog. Purpose is marketing consulting services and selling software subscriptions. The subscriptions will be purchased elsewhere, so just need a pointer to that.
> The blog pages can be “standard” with right hand column.
> The static pages can be the design I see so often now, one wide column, constant header at top, informative footer at bottom.
> I’d like to have the ability to have different page formats (wide, narrow, perhaps two column), however that’s not critical.
> I can write my own HTML and CSS. Not great at it, however, I can get it to look the way I want.
> I’m wary of page builders because I don’t want to get locked in.
> I want something that I can convert away from if needed.
> Also, I tried Divi (this is not a critique of Divi, more a statement about myself) and just could not wrap my head around it; I felt both constrained and that there was too much to learn.
> Free is nice, however I’d be happy to pay for a theme to get reliable support.
> I need to be able to use it on at least two sites: the real site and a development site.

So it seems like I need a flexible paid theme that will let me do what I want (on at least two sites) without requiring a lot of structure or lockin. HOWEVER, it could be that I’m missing the point, and that I should accept the structure (and the learning curve, and lock in) and take advantage of the power.

Avada looks good, however, so do many others.

And guidance on how to think about this would be appreciated.

Thanks!