memes

You're overthinking it. As long as a cast-iron pan isn't nearly rusted through or cracked in half, it's fine. Get a cheap Lodge, get an expensive one, get an old one at a yard sale -- doesn't matter. If the surface is rusty or something, just put it through an oven self-cleaning cycle, sand it down to the state shown in the meme, and re-season.

Go to an antique mall and look for a Wagner or Griswold. Vintage cast irons were machined smooth like the pans pictured in the OP.

Stargazer. Among the companies that smooth out the surface of their pans (a think any company could trivially do but don't) , they cost the least. My info is a few years out do date though.

Good ones that have been cut smooth will cost you double or more than a lodge.

You can sand and grind a lodge down to be a lot smoother and then season it up and you can get there. Or even just season a lodge a whole bunch of times amd you can make it smooth.

Otherwise, there's a lot of cast irons that are smooth right out of the box, such as BackCountry Iron and Finex.

Just be careful of a lot of cheaper brands advertising "lighter weight" as a feature. It isn't. Them being heavy as hell is a large part of what makes cast iron skillets cook so nicely. The iron doesn't cool off when you put the food in. Lighter weight means it's easier for them to make, uses less raw materials they have to buy, and costs less to ship.