Is small purchases

For context, I am working with a pretty modest budget so high-end suggestions probably will not land. There is a lot of conflicting advice online and most of it is from 2019. I tried three different approaches and none of them felt quite right.

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

Maybe an unpopular opinion but here we go. The trade-offs here are not obvious to me and I keep flip-flopping. There is a lot of conflicting advice online and most of it is from 2019.