Should I just go ee padded/ee dagger and dex charms? Let's say my theoretical budget is 10k fg.

In my opinion, padded ee makes no sense here. I would suggest dex robes, dex charms, daggers

Really... it is up to you to test it out for your own way to play the game ... feel what is comfortable for you.

Your setup... people use it, it works for them ... myself personally... "EE Padded Robe" = meh = waste of time. I would either use Dex or Int padded ... you wonder why Int ... simple, Melee / Heal Monk using Salvation ability and a Base 30 Intelligence with a 100%+++ EE heal charm (Note this charm can be switched from ACC to Main to get full effects when it feels hard to kill and heal).

Now you can still have a melee heal monk with ee weapon / dex armor & +int/dex Main charm if using EE heal in Acc... again, switch charm slots to improve heals ... and minimum 30 Base intelligence for mana pool... any higher, then you would consider becoming a Tri Monk which is ridiculous without gear...

agree with sqn

although nothing wrong with staffs and can get much higher EE
if you already have swords i'd actually highly recommend staffs over daggers for cost reasons