bread maker vs conventional oven vs countertop oven vs fan force oven?
It depends on what you want.  

A bread maker is great if you want to measure out the ingredients, press go, and come back later to a predictable fresh loaf.  Mine also makes good pizza dough.  I have quite a cool house much of the year (and no good warm spots), so proving bread is slow  without it.

If you want to experiment, or to make sourdough or unusual bread, an oven of some form is more useful. There are advantages and disadvantages of different types of oven, but basically you need one that's got a reliable thermostat and is big enough for anything you want to cook in it.  

If you've already got an oven, a breadmaker can be used to make dough, then you can bake rolls or loaves in the oven. Any given breadmaker will have a small range of sizes it can do, so if you occasionally want a lot of  bread in one go, but normally only a little, you'll end up making it by hand after all. Another option is a stand mixer combined with an oven - that's flexible and saves effort, but you have to be there at the right time, just as if you're kneading by hand