Quick poll: gear recommendations on a tight budget [v2]

Spent the last few weekends digging into this and the deeper I go the more questions I have. This came up at a meetup recently and the room was split, so curious what the broader community thinks. Spent the last few weekends digging into this and the deeper I go the more questions I have.

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.