Looking for gear recommendations (2026 edition) [v4]

Maybe an unpopular opinion but here we go.

I want to write something more comprehensive about this later but starting with a quick post to gather thoughts.

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. There is a lot of conflicting advice online and most of it is from 2019.