Agreed, while you can find crystal clear rubies, a touch of silk is considered ideal. Meanwhile, spinel is ideal when crystal clear (and more often crystal clear than ruby).
OP did look at some spinels before, I even linked a potential candidate, so perhaps she made up her mind on ruby.
With a 30k budget, if I had the time I would probably take a trip to Bangkok and see rubies and spinels for myself. But I live closer to Bangkok than OP might.
I did consider a spinel - I would definitely save a lot of money, but it’s a ruby I really want. I’m based in the UK so Bangkok is a bit far but I do think it makes sense to go see them in person. So far I haven’t seen anything that is bright red that holds its colour well in low lighting. Are the colour of Burma rubies that much better than Mozambique rubies?