Has anyone tried first impressions worth the hype? [v2]

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. 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. Been thinking about this for a while and curious what the community thinks. There is a lot of conflicting advice online and most of it is from 2019.