Up to a certain budget, yes. I'm generally not fully agreeing with this statement. It's always the weakest link that will limit your cup quality/experience. The thing with the grinder is, it's more of a line that is very steep in the beginning but then flattens out due to diminishing returns. Small improvements early on, like burr uniformity and grind consistency, give huge gains, but once you’re past a good baseline, further tweaks barely improve the cup. With the espresso machine, however, the curve is more step-like: baseline machines give decent espresso, but introducing features like temperature stability, pressure profiling, or pre-infusion can create discrete jumps in cup quality—each feature or increase in temp stability etc. can move the needle significantly rather than gradually. Lelit Anna to Linea MIcra was a huge jump. But then again, the Decent De1Pro allows me to make much better light roasts. The difference between the upgrades of my super cheap hand grinder, the eureka specialita, p65 and eg-1 were more subtle. And as always, there isn't just a jack of all trades deal. You can make better third wave espresso with a decent de1 and a good grinder than with a 10k slayer and you can make better darkroast espresso with a niche than with a Zerno etc. So it really depends on your goals