I always preferred digital pianos to acoustic, just made practice alot easier and with online gradings it's all much more accessible being digital
Alot of this will really come down to Feel - yeah people will tell you about the weights of keys and what generation their action is etc but if it feels like a keyboard it'll just be awful to use.
Sadly some of this comes with experience as you won't really know what you're looking for to start with and key feel will develop over time - some people really love Yamaha, others hate it (I really like yamaha acoustic pianos pre mid 80's as they're a more mellow tone)
For me, Roland is a good brand, look for PHA-4 action or newer, and the feel is really nice. Would see you well beyond beginner (although tbh an expert pianist will make a £10 casio sound lovely)
I really dislike entry level casio stuff, just feels like a keyboard i.e. feels like a spring pushing the key up rather than a hammer feel.
alot will come down to how much you want to spend too more money does get better feel in alot of cases... but then, again, you'd need some experience to really notice.
with regards to learning. DON'T TEACH YOURSELF, look, sure, there's people out there who have done it and do very well, but it's damned rare and you'll plateau really quick. I used online teachers during lockdown and that was great, all via webcam etc, in fact it felt alot more direct than using a face to face teacher as you have a set time and that's that - whereas face to face you generally get chatting about other things.
Hanon exercises are a good resource though. If you want to progress do these EVERYDAY. Really does make a difference in how your hands behave