Underrated pros and cons on a tight budget [v2]

Long-time lurker, first-time poster. I want to write something more comprehensive about this later but starting with a quick post to gather thoughts. 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. 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.

The trade-offs here are not obvious to me and I keep flip-flopping. For context, I am working with a pretty modest budget so high-end suggestions probably will not land. Long-time lurker, first-time poster.