Hot take: the meta after a year [v4]

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. For context, I am working with a pretty modest budget so high-end suggestions probably will not land.

Quick context: I am relatively new to this and trying to find my footing.

There is a lot of conflicting advice online and most of it is from 2019.