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Bahamas diving is often shallow, Nassau/New Providence or Freeport/Grand Bahama will have shark options (feeds) for novice divers. Stuart Cove's does a lot of that on Nassau. Bahama Divers also does a couple of dives - one to a blue hole - where sharks are often seen. The sharks tend to hang around the sites during non-feed dives also. It's more affordable to stay in the Cable Beach area than on Paradise Island. Coves also lists a couple less expensive options on their website - one is a B&B - but they're not in town so you'd likely want a car. Stuart Cove - A Stone's Throw Away B&BOK, well maybe I need to review the budget again.
I would appreciate suggestions not tied to that $2,000 limit but that reflect our other concerns: novice divers, pelagics, good dive operators, interesting places to visit. Is Little Cayman good diving for us?
Nassau has more commercial things to do, the Atlantis Resort/Casino Paradise Island complex, shopping downtown, an old fort, golf course etc. Also cruise ships. But that only affects downtown typically.
UNEXSO on Grand Bahama also has shark and dolphin dives. That area - Port Lucaya - is pretty nice. It's a pretty low key, quiet island - one casino, some tourist shopping and lots of white sandy beaches. There's a ferry now between Fort Lauderdale and Grand Bahama Island - IDK if it's much cheaper than a BahamasAir flight though. https://www.ferryexpress.com/wps/portal/comercial/home_us_en?estrecho=3&resetPortlet=true
The outer islands, Exuma's, Eleuthera, Andros, San Salvador, Bimini etc. all have shark/pelagic options but are underpopulated and pretty quiet. I don't think many of them are exactly "interesting places to visit." Staniel Cay does have the beach swimming pigs...
For big pelagics, Curacao isn't an ideal choice either. Like Bonaire it's mostly small stuff. Saba is also.
Turks & Caicos would be good for pelagics but you may not find enough other interesting things to do there. It's a smaller version of Grand Cayman, equally pricey with less infrastructure. The Grace Bay area is a nice mix of resorts/restaurants and more upscale shopping. The big draw is that Grace Bay is one of the top beaches in the world.
Day boat trips out to West Caicos or French Cay would get you into the pelagics. At French Cay we saw 3-4 sharks per dive, turtles, stingrays were so common it was boring, lots of barracuda, some big eagle rays, huge lionfish and there are supposed to be some huge grouper somewhere off West Caicos . There's a couple of AI resorts on Provo also, Breezes and a Club Med. They do more of their diving locally off Provo. No shorediving there though - the reef is just too far offshore.
Grand Turk is another option but even though it's the capital, it's much smaller, much less populated with good wall diving. But:
Bohio Dive Resort is one option there. Certain times of year they see whales there also.home to a state of the art luxury cruise ship center.
All about Turks/Caicos: Beautiful by Nature - Turks and Caicos Islands - Turks and Caicos Tourist Board
If you are still considering Grand Cayman, I found a nice looking B&B there last year. Cayman Islands B&B | Luxury Accommodations | Spa | Sunshine Suites is more affordable also, it's not waterfront (across the street) with kitchenettes in most of the rooms. I've seen under $100 in the summer there recently. They also offer packages with Divers Down - http://www.sunshinesuites.com/packages/