For me, I hit a good tobacco blend in diy fairly quickly, then a second, mellower (tob4 & 5). They were plenty good enough, so I then went to sweet stuff, stumbled on a respectable car capp and my vananaberry. Haven't bought commercial liquid for over a year.
I got into organic flavorings for friends who had pg sensitivity, replicated my blends, did a few new ones. Came up with a vanilla tobacco in feb that has simply always hit the spot for me. I still make other things, to pif, and as we go into winter I am working on a couple new blends for kicks, but as of right now I have an all day that has done the job for 10 months plus. I also haven't run into the dreaded "no taste" days since I locked in on my vantob
On the hardware side, I was happy with 808 gear, tried riva 510 for a couple months, for fun. I knew I liked higher power, had always used a pt. I talked to a couple people whose opinion I value, picked a notcigs infinity vv, enjoyed it, stayed with it. Adding a buzz pro so my primary and backup pv were both notcig was a no-brainer. Picked up their tank when it came out, another win. I'll get their mini vv when it comes out, for more discrete use, but am an entirely happy vaper, interested in new developments while not particularly caring about buying more stuff.