I'm a newb as well, and I'm sure other more experienced folks will have good advice, but I'll chime in. I have similar tone goals and I bought the Erica Black VCO 2 and the Make Noise QPAS to go with it (and I also have a Mimeophon which is super fun!). I've been really happy with that VCO/filter combo to get dirty, heavily modulated arps and sequences going. OK it's more traditional analog, but you might like Erica's Black Wavetable VCO. To me Erica's stuff really get's to that gritty place I love.
I combined it with Plaits - it's super versatile and really shines when you modulate the Timbre and Morph.
I'll also add that I have Ripples, and compared to QPAS it is really tame sounding (ymmv). It's a great filter, but it is exactly what they say it is - "a no-fuss, elegant choice". To me it's kinda like a vanilla utility filter and doesn't add a ton of character to the sound. I'm glad Plaits has more than enough character to compensate.