How small purchases that changed my mind

Mostly thinking out loud — feel free to push back hard. Looking for honest feedback, not validation.

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.

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. Mostly thinking out loud — feel free to push back hard.