I agree, if you can afford it get the best you can buy and with emb machines the largest hoop size. Make sure she has good support of the dealer.
Its only a waste of money if she doesn't use it. I hear all the time that people get intimidated by their emb machine so they don't use it; some haven't even tried it. That's the real shame.
I'm on my second Viking now, traded in the Ruby for the Diamond deluxe because it was such a great deal. I made myself a promise not to just let it sit. I'm so true to myself on that promise that recently when getting frustrated because my LQS hadn't set up any classes that I could attend, they need to be at night or Thur thru Sat, I told them that I was selling my system because it did me no good to have the top of the line but no know how to use it other than the basic. If I wanted limitaions I'd spent a few hundreds and got a basic instead of spending thousands. They are listening to me and doing classes on not just software but also how to use hidden features on the sewing machine part and then the emb part. I'm happy and hopefully it'll progress from there. I signed up for a couple of classes on Craftsy.com