Should small purchases I keep coming back to [v2]

Posting this here because the relevant subreddit has gotten too noisy lately. Been thinking about this for a while and curious what the community thinks. There is a lot of conflicting advice online and most of it is from 2019.

I tried three different approaches and none of them felt quite right. Quick context: I am relatively new to this and trying to find my footing. Not sure if this is the right place to ask, mods please remove if it is not.

Long-time lurker, first-time poster. There is a lot of conflicting advice online and most of it is from 2019. There is a lot of conflicting advice online and most of it is from 2019.