Weekly discussion: long-term planning worth the hype? [v4]

There is a lot of conflicting advice online and most of it is from 2019. For context, I am working with a pretty modest budget so high-end suggestions probably will not land. This came up at a meetup recently and the room was split, so curious what the broader community thinks.

Maybe an unpopular opinion but here we go. For context, I am working with a pretty modest budget so high-end suggestions probably will not land.

The trade-offs here are not obvious to me and I keep flip-flopping. There is a lot of conflicting advice online and most of it is from 2019.