(waves)
I'm in nearly the same boat. Although I bought the BM235 already.
I still want a bench meter. The OWON's look like the right budget. However I have made that mistake with scopes twice too many.
I don't need a "I paid $3500 reference" meter. I don't even think I need a "I paid $350 for second hand reference" meter. I wouldn't know how to test it was accurate. Chicken and egg.
Why a bench meter? The opposite reasons to "Why handheld.". It can't move. It doesnt have batteries. It's always there and it's never just powering off on you to save battery.
However. For what I could spend on a "Brand" bench meter, such as a Siglent circa $800 I could get 4 Owons.
That actually appeals to me more. There are DC things I'd love not to waste a scope channel on.
I think the only non-basic features I'd say were a must is statistics. Max,Min,Mean,Hz,Duty stuff in small print measure or by button if it must.
UART/USB/Serial do-dah would be nice, but I bought that option on all three bench supplies and I think I tested only one of them. I found the other two BT modules in the parts bin. It's not that the one I tested was bad, the Tenma, you could set it to CSV output and it would run it's values out at about 10Hz or something. That's actually quite useful. It would also accept parameter changes, allowing for "remove control" from an MCU.
Part of me just wants a strip of bare bones volt meters with mini-hook-clips hanging in a row on the bench shelf. Maybe not the $4 LED volt meters, but I'm still looking for middle ground. Mend-it-mark has tempted me to go retro with actual swinging analogue gauages.... shame it's one range per gauge
But ... no. I like my digital and I like my software features and color LCD screens. I'd take that over a 5th digit decimal on volts (10uV).
The other option is to buy 6 $20 hand held meters and hang them from their stands on a wire. Playing servant to their power saving would not be much fun.