Is gear recommendations that changed my mind [v3]

I tried three different approaches and none of them felt quite right. There is a lot of conflicting advice online and most of it is from 2019.

Posting this here because the relevant subreddit has gotten too noisy lately. Maybe an unpopular opinion but here we go. Spent the last few weekends digging into this and the deeper I go the more questions I have.

For context, I am working with a pretty modest budget so high-end suggestions probably will not land. Posting this here because the relevant subreddit has gotten too noisy lately.