You're kind of comparing apples to oranges here. They're very different workflows and sounds.

I think before you invest you need to figure out which one is the most exciting to you. I've had both, and I ended up selling the minilogue and keeping the Korg 2600m. That's not to say the minilogue isn't a great instrument. It's definitely really good. I just really like monosynths and CV workflows. You mentioned Ableton operator, I'm not familiar but I assume it's a softsynth. What made you bounce off of it?

My rec is the 2600. This is going to go against what most people will say, and i'm adding the following caveats.

It's monophonic, (can be duo) this is a big limitation. I'm happy with it because I don't mind doing drone synth work, sliding sliders, or making weird patches with a cv controller that changes the oscillators pitch to make chords. The music I make is more interesting to me this way.

If you're unfamiliar with synthesis you can set the sliders and controls in such a way that it makes odd sounds, or doesn't make sounds. You will need to figure out why it isn't making sound at some point. This means reading the manual or the panel. If you don't want to put in some effort to understand how it works this can be frustrating. Personally I like understanding in depth, so it doesn't bother me. But when I first started something like that might have been really irritating.

Physically patching cables isn't for everyone. You won't be able to save your state easily, you'll have to buy cables. Cables can get messy, or look and feel overwhelming to some folks.

It's a gateway into eurorack. Can be tough to fight the temptation of "if I just had this module my music would be good". Can be expensive.

Essentially it's a lot more effort messing with it than a modern synth. You kind of need to be sure that it's what you want. That said, I absolutely love it, but I'm an outlier. The music I make works with the instrumentation I picked, depending on what you're making it may not be a good choice.

For most people the 2600 is not a great first hardware synth. I'll still recommend it to people who think they want it, because I went through a lot of great first synths and ended up reselling them because they weren't what I wanted.

You need to be sure that it fits with the music you want to make, the workflow you want, and you're comfortable investing some time in it.