I think the T-17 is worth it if you can afford to put in a little more money. The insert is Yuki's and have to say they are much nicer than the cartel ones. The only thing is if your heart is set on sourcing a 1030 movement and you went to yuki, you would have to get the 6538 case which is really wokky. Which means you're better off with NDT or phong for the case but they are again into another price bracket.
Its up to you how much you're wanting to put into it but remember even after $4000 its still going to be a rep and if someday you do need to resell, you're going to take a massive hit. Like 50%. You could probably get something like mine for about $2.5K. Less without the gen parts. If you break what you are looking at down, the movement will be something like $1-$1.5K + service, NDT/phong caseset arent they something like $1.2K. Then you've got to get a nice dial,hands,bracelet etc.... will be interesting anyway whichever direction you look to go. Goodluck