Hot take: gear recommendations — what would you do? [v1]

Looking for honest feedback, not validation. Not sure if this is the right place to ask, mods please remove if it is not.

Maybe an unpopular opinion but here we go. I want to write something more comprehensive about this later but starting with a quick post to gather thoughts.

This came up at a meetup recently and the room was split, so curious what the broader community thinks. I want to write something more comprehensive about this later but starting with a quick post to gather thoughts. Mostly thinking out loud — feel free to push back hard.