Best high quality camcorders 2025

In America, I don't mind used, budget ~$1K USD, Type? not sure, note educated enough, video, recording family events and such, viewfinder, SD or micro SD, Small bag is fine, everything else should be covered below

TLDR: Recently found ancient family footage, I am inspired to document family events and important moments in my life. Got shitty amazon camcorder, was very disappointing. Got a fairly expensive gopro, also disappointing. Looking for guidance.

I just want to preface this by saying that I have absolutely no idea what I am talking about. I recently got a cheap, $100 "4K" camera from amazon and it failed me.... The real life quality was terrible, and the underlying operating system was super unreliable and often would not let me even record (that's the whole point???) I then got a hero 13 gopro creator edition, and the quality is great but I don't like the form factor and the fact it can not zoom. Also the included charging mount would force me to re-pair, which is very inconvenience and annoying on an already bad form factor.

I basically am willing to spend up to $1K, but I want to make sure that the video and audio has a nice quality and I also want the camera to work properly. Optical zoom also seems a lot better than digital, so that is a plus. Please feel free to chime in and let me know if I am just completely out of touch and need educating.