Overrated pros and cons on a tight budget [v4]

This came up at a meetup recently and the room was split, so curious what the broader community thinks. Maybe an unpopular opinion but here we go. I tried three different approaches and none of them felt quite right.

Mostly thinking out loud — feel free to push back hard. For context, I am working with a pretty modest budget so high-end suggestions probably will not land. Spent the last few weekends digging into this and the deeper I go the more questions I have.