Anyone else small purchases vs the alternatives [v4]

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

Been thinking about this for a while and curious what the community thinks. The trade-offs here are not obvious to me and I keep flip-flopping.

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