Unfortunately, about the only places you find all of the acts still playing through mics and not plugging in are bluegrass festivals, where transducers are frowned upon.
Some major acts still play through mics and have refused to sacrifice the wonderful sound you get by playing through a mic. Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Country Joe McDonald, Catherine MacLellan and John Hammond Jr. still play unplugged.
I recall going to a festival 2 or 3 years ago where Bruce Cockburn, John Sebastion and Steve Earl all plugged in their guitars and got that quacky, twangy sound that's associated with transducers. Then Joe MacDonald came on and played both his regular guitar and his resophonic through the mic and it was a breath of fresh air.
I have been asked many times by sound people, "Why are you using a mic? Everybody plugs in these days." I resisted for a long time, and for a duo or solo show I still like a mic, but I finally broke down when everyone else i was playing with plugged in and the balance was off.
I don't see the point in buying an expensive guitar and playing it through a transducer. It will never sound as good as it does acoustically.
For busking, Traynor makes a neat little wedge shaped, battery operated amp called a TVM10. Mine has two inputs, one will take XLR or phone jack and the other takes only a phone jack. There are also 2 volume controls plus equalization controls for bass, low mid, high mid and treble. There is also an aux. input for media which I have never used. I've had it for a few years, so I can't recall the price, but I'm sure it was very reasonable, between $100 and $200.