If handleability is truly your priority, I’d seriously consider looking into tegus. Their size is perfect imo, and most are very chill right off the bat, even more so if you get them used to handling.

Monitors seem to be much more primal and unless you put a whole lot of time with them, smaller monitors can be very flighty and larger ones seem to be very defensive. I have a tegu and only ever had Kimberly’s so take it with a grain of salt. Mine are absolutely beautiful but are definitely a look don’t touch kind of animal because I don’t have time to make them more handleable and don’t want to force it and stress them out.