Keep in mind that using a drone for purposes related to making money (in the U.S.) require particular licensing of the operator. I've even heard that if you show your drone footage on your monetized YouTube page, you should have one of these specific licenses. I don't like it and feel there should be certain exceptions and caveats, but this is as I understand it, based on research a few years back.

I'm in a similar situation, needing a drone for scouting crops. I've been eyefucking the Potensic Atom 2, it seems to have good optics and a full gimbal camera. I need more range than you're likely to need, but the GPS RTH would probably be useful for you.

It seems like a better value than a DJI and I'm suspicious of DJIs app features. I don't need it shutting down because I'm too close to an airport that never gets used, and we have an agronomist that can't use his DJI on some of our fields because of those restrictions.

just to do things like reading rooftop unit dataplates

Most cheap drones won't be able to do this, at least not in real time. They tend to have 24mm equivalent focal length, which doesn't lend itself well to close-ups. In theory you could zoom in on a PC, but that involves getting the photos off of the drone, which is hard to to on the fly.

You'll want a camera with longer focal length if you want to be able to scout these things in real time. But honestly, I'm not sure even a 70mm would give you that, and by that point, you're no longer in cheap territory.

You might be able to get your hands on a second have Mavic 3 Pro, which has a 166mm lens on it, but even second hand and one generation behind, it's still not cheap

If you need all-weather capabilities, your budget is blown.

What does moderate wind mean to you? 25 knot winds are common where I live, and drones that can handle 25 knots tend to cost more.

Resolving text on the scale of a newspaper generally means good optics and a larger sensor, so more money. That said, most quality drones have decent optics. If you need low-light performance or wide HDR imaging, a better sensor is needed which will affect your budget.

Another consideration: the cheaper the drone, the shittier the gimbal. Most drones use a rolling shutter for the camera, in contrast to the physical leaf shutter on, say, a dSLR. Tiny vibrations will result in distortions in your output, making it difficult to resolve finer details.

Flying your drone outside visual line of sight is illegal in the US. VLOS here means the operator or a visual observer has eyes on the drone at all times. Are the drone police watching for every single moment you don't have VLOS on your drone? Of course not. Just be aware that this is the law.

And finally, as others have mentioned glancingly: if you are in the United States and using your drone is part of your paid work, you absolutely must have an FAA Part 107 license. This is regardless of the size of your drone. The Part 107 license is not hard to get, but there is about a week or two of studying involved (depending on how quickly you absorb material). The exam costs ~$125 to ~$200 at FAA-approved testing centers.

• https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/small-unmanned-aircraft-systems-uas-regulations-part-107
• https://faadronezone-access.faa.gov/
• FAA-approved test centers: https://faa.psiexams.com/faa/login

So, all that said... depending on [all the things], I would suggest trying to find a used:

• DJI Mini 2 or 3: super common, lots of them on the secondary market; lots of aftermarket support; wrecking it won't wreck your budget; probably good enough optics, but cheap enough to get a feel if a drone will be additive; sub-250g takeoff weight means that you don't need to register it just to see if this will work for you
• Skydio S2: can fly from your tablet, lots of autonomy; great HDR performance; great performance in high winds; cons: basic collision avoidance mode is ridiculously cautious (so that they can upsell you on their stupid expensive Enterprise Framework), no longer made so not particularly replaceable

Edit to add: "budget" and "workhorse" are mutually exclusive in sUAS, as is "budget" and "surveying." Now if you just need to photograph rooftop hardware and stitch together some images, there are less expensive sUAS routes. But you're still going to be about $1200 for drone and computing hardware. I'm happy to chat about refining suggestions based on your specific requirements.