Overrated weekend plans that changed my mind [v4]

Mostly thinking out loud — feel free to push back hard. Quick context: I am relatively new to this and trying to find my footing.

Spent the last few weekends digging into this and the deeper I go the more questions I have. Posting this here because the relevant subreddit has gotten too noisy lately. For context, I am working with a pretty modest budget so high-end suggestions probably will not land.