Quick poll: the meta I keep coming back to [v1]

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. For context, I am working with a pretty modest budget so high-end suggestions probably will not land.

Long-time lurker, first-time poster. Been thinking about this for a while and curious what the community thinks. Quick context: I am relatively new to this and trying to find my footing.