If I were to pick an "attainable" bike from this era, I'd take an early 90's Kona Hot. I love Konas from that era and they pop up frequently on Pinkbike for reasonable money. The Hot had a Tange Prestige frame fabricated by Tom Teesdale (
https://redkiteprayer.com/2014/07/to...a-remembrance/ ) in California. XT/XTR everything, including the hubs. Here's a nice rebuild:
https://cog.konaworld.com/kona-dream...uilt-kona-hot/
You can get a nice Hot for $500-$800 these days, I might have to at some point.
It's crazy to think back in the 1980s and 1990s, lots of high end bike fabricators like 3 Rensho, Teesdale, Waterford, Ibis, Serotta, Landshark etc were all doing series production frames for big brands. You could go to a local shop a buy a Waterford-made, Columbus SL Schwinn Peloton with full Ultegra for less than $1,000.
Also, here's my favorite Old Shovel rebuild, a $15 Ibis-made REI:
One last point: my primary road bike is a 2020 mainstream-brand carbon bike with Di2, tubeless carbon wheels, hydraulic disc brakes etc. My main mountain bike is similarly modern with slack geometry, 1x, wide rims etc. I love those bikes, haven't had any issues with them and wouldn't ride anything else. I'm not a blind nostalgist, I just see value in these older bikes.