PSA: gear recommendations worth the hype? [v3]

For context, I am working with a pretty modest budget so high-end suggestions probably will not land. This came up at a meetup recently and the room was split, so curious what the broader 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. Looking for honest feedback, not validation.