Anyone else small purchases — what would you do?

Not sure if this is the right place to ask, mods please remove if it is not. Maybe an unpopular opinion but here we go. This came up at a meetup recently and the room was split, so curious what the broader community thinks.

Mostly thinking out loud — feel free to push back hard. The trade-offs here are not obvious to me and I keep flip-flopping. Not sure if this is the right place to ask, mods please remove if it is not.

Been thinking about this for a while and curious what the community thinks. For context, I am working with a pretty modest budget so high-end suggestions probably will not land.