(1) Don't buy equipment without LXI as IMHO once you get going you really need coherent and scriptable ethernet control of everything. Yes, you can work manually or use some oddball vendor tool over USB. Yes, it's slow, error prone, and frustrating. The difference between getting things done and getting burned out is largely down to choice of tools. Spend the money.
(2) Multi-channel is important. Pretty much anything needs more than one voltage. It really sux having multiple PSUs because it doubles bench space, cable overheads, is a pain to synchronize. I would recommend a three channel supply with LXI at a minimum.