The link touches on the problem of pining down a particular micro for development board choice or build, the Picmicro boards, Picdem-2 etc have facility for 18pin, 28 pin & 40 pin on the same board, fortunately Picmicro kept the same pin out designation across most part No's which makes them very versatile.
Max.
It also depends on which programming route you want to take ?
Pic is well supported with both Assembly and C.
Also consider devices like the very popular Arduino with C++ and even the Rasp PI
While things like the STM32 dev boards look great and cheap you want to consider the practical hobbyist support
Both Pic and Arduino have there own very active forums plus many other forums like Electro-Tech with a wealth of information and experienced users.
Also both have a vast array of hardware in terms of dev boards and accessories.