Tends to be a whole lot of the former & not so much of the latter.
I do my research before I buy stuff. A lot of people like to complain about the cost of the Provari, but they saved me a ton of money. I initally had an 808 setup that just wasn't doing it for me, so I spent hours and hours reading & researching. The Provari was spendy, but I couldn't count how many times I read, "I bought this, then this, then this, then this, ... and I got a Provari, it's exactly what I've been looking for." There were enough 'haters' out there that pointed out the 'flaws' that I had a really good idea of both the pros & cons, and I knew what I could live without. So I skipped spending hundreds of dollars on dozens of other mods that I likely wouldn't have been happy with & jumped straight to the Provari. When I wanted an RBA, I did the same thing & got the authentic KFL. I don't regret either, nor the dozens of hours I spent learning all I could to get there. It definitely made the initial investment more expensive than going out & buying an Ego, but in the long run I saved a ton of money on gear & can spend more on juices right away.
Unfortunately juices aren't so easy unless you taste them yourself. At least I've got a few go to flavors now & I can stock up on those while sampling other stuff. I got 4 new ones from HHV this time when I ordered some Dark Horse in bulk, so I'm hoping 1 is another homerun. I've ordered from them a few other times so I've tried Java Smooth (the worst HHV flavor I've had yet), Mocha Java (nice but needs a ton of aging & still isn't a knock out) & Huntsman (another one I don't really care for). I've got Shadow, Heavenly Tobacco (I wanted Heavenly Army, but it wasn't available in the sample pack - I'll probably try a 15mL in the next order though), Legend & the wildcard, Blueberry Muffin.