I love my Pfaff's. A friend loves her Bernina. Another friend loves her Janome.
Puzzling.
My thought would be to forget about the time element. Gift a nice card. Include a card for what you want to get her (including a price limit, perhaps), and plan a nice fun trip to a place where she can actually try out the various machines and decide for herself.
To me my sewing machines are very personal. I have tried various machines within my price limit, listed what I want the machine to do, thought about how I relate to some machines, then choose what would fit me.
Hint: almost all sellers of machines tout about how many fancy stitches each machine does .... yet, I really don't use that many, and more than likely wouldn't pay for them.
Also used machines can be a good buy if they are serviced before buying. Many people trade-up to the next level of machine, so the used ones can be quite a bargain.
Yes, One of my machines also does embroidery but I have found I really don't enjoy embroidery by machine that much. I mostly make labels or decorate items like towels and such. Probably not a good investment considering how little I use it. However, I do use and love the sewing machine portion of the combo sewing & embroidery machine.