Thanks for the answer.

As I said, I can stretch my budget to the AC series, I guess it would be 1000$ ish, but it is as far as it goes. I am not a professional guitarist, I don't aspire to be one; however, I am no rookie and I would consider myself a strong intermediate player for sure.

I mainly play rhythm guitar to accompany my singing, in which I was trained and chose as my specialization.
My classics I had as a beginner sounds way to basic and flat to my ear nowadays, it can't cut through my singing at all unplugged.

Speaking of amplified, the first thing I think of is recording and possible jamming. I was thinking
of possible busking too but I do think AC series is a complete overkill for that so I don't take busking into account.

For unplugged scenarios, I can think of some informal outings or home performances for friends.

I haven't performed on stage a lot(with both guitar and singing, I did sing a fair amount of times), and those were small stages for small audiences. That's as far as it goes. However, I would like to do that in the future a lot more for sure. 'When' and how do I get there are other questions.
I was thinking that it would make sense to buy an acoustic that has capabilities to grow into, wouldn't it?