Worst the meta that changed my mind [v2]

Long-time lurker, first-time poster. Been thinking about this for a while and curious what the community thinks. I want to write something more comprehensive about this later but starting with a quick post to gather thoughts.

Not sure if this is the right place to ask, mods please remove if it is not. For context, I am working with a pretty modest budget so high-end suggestions probably will not land.