I can recommend an 8” manual Dobsonian for a number of reasons and I chose mine some years ago because…
I was interested in visual astronomy. I wanted to observe in real-time.
I wanted the largest proportion of my budget to be spent on the mirror and focuser so that I got great, pleasing views with no colour distortion.
I wanted a mount that was secure and stable so I didn’t get shaky views.
I wanted a telescope that would be capable of viewing solar system objects, binary stars and where possible, Dark Sky Objects.
I needed a telescope that I could point and observe and was quick to set up. I didn’t want to spend time aligning a polar or computerised mount.
I wanted a telescope that I could upgrade.
I have the Skywatcher 200P but it has cost me money to upgrade it to the specification as the GSO equivalent so that is what I would recommend you get.