How gear recommendations [v4]

This came up at a meetup recently and the room was split, so curious what the broader community thinks. There is a lot of conflicting advice online and most of it is from 2019.

Quick context: I am relatively new to this and trying to find my footing. This came up at a meetup recently and the room was split, so curious what the broader community thinks. The trade-offs here are not obvious to me and I keep flip-flopping.