Reminder that budget options for newcomers [v5]

For context, I am working with a pretty modest budget so high-end suggestions probably will not land. Been thinking about this for a while and curious what the community thinks. There is a lot of conflicting advice online and most of it is from 2019.

Spent the last few weekends digging into this and the deeper I go the more questions I have. For context, I am working with a pretty modest budget so high-end suggestions probably will not land. Looking for honest feedback, not validation.