Heh, I’m in a similar position, having seen the best and worst of both macOS and Windows over the past 30+ years.
Thankfully I’ve not had to resort to that level of assistance. 
After bouncing around a lot of apps over the years, I’m now focussing my time and energy on making the ones I already own do as much for me as possible, and that has paid dividends.
Good points, I’m trying to balance convenience against cost (financial or time/energy) these days, and keep my data both local and cross-platform as much as possible.
The difference with this forum is that it’s real users who do not make a living of promoting software are talking about the apps. After been here for a while I am pretty aware of everyone’s worflows so the conversation is like hanging around with a bunch of friends and also people who pass by. Also, compared to other platforms the conversation is more relaxed and there’s no need for much firefighting, which is cool as well.
On the temptation side of things, well you know what is dangerous? A synthesizer users forum. I almost bought today a freaking Roland Jupiter Xm if the store had had it on stock. Talk about acquisition syndrome!
Edit: there’s nothing wrong with “content creation” promoting stuff, and I respect a lot the people that does it!
I don’t know that a Roland Jupiter Xm is but I’m pretty sure I don’t need one! 
This sparked two thoughts for me, “Trust” and “Signal to Noise Ratio”. Both are very high here.
I noted previously that one of the reasons I visit this forum is to discover new software. I enjoy trying things out. Seeing what is available. And adding tools to my kit. But I do not suffer from FOMO (for lack of a better term) and do not fret about finding the ‘perfect’ app. I can be content with good enough.
I have a couple of hobbies, photography and astronomy, which can be expensive as you want them to be. Software is cheap!
I only use 3 social media “items”
All are related to my interests, have friendly, helpful and likeminded people in there from all over the world.
The main difference with things like facebook and twitter is that these sites have a very positive vibe. There will be friendly discussion sometimes, and maybe even constructive disagreement, but I’ve not seen any of the hostility I sometimes see on “regular” social media. I’ve not been on twitter or facebook for more than a decade now myself, so not sure what happens there nowadays, but from mainstream media it seems it has only got worse.
Having said that:
I’ve found myself drifting away from MPU and Automators over the past months due to the fact that most episodes and MPU posts seem to involve either Omnifocus, Obsidian/Notion debate or general “how I write” stories. None of which really interest me so much I’d like to read or heard about them day in day out.
I enjoy automating and optimizing my macs and iOS devices, doing cool stuff with MacOS and iOS. I don’t enjoy writing or task-managing to the degree I read about them more than once a year or so.
I got really interested in FOSS over the winter, and several months ago I added the Self Hosted discord to the mix allows me to further satisfy my inner Geek and feed my desire to use open source software, self host my main workflows and expand my automation horizon to the server platform.
Since then I have kept up with the MPU forum, but I have not listened to any of the episodes since February. Automators same story, keep up with the forum, no listening. It’s not that I don’t like the podcasts, it’s more that I do not get out of it what I used to anymore.
I already have all the writing tools I need (Joplin/Apple notes), agenda apps (Apple calendar / Thunderbird), mail apps (Thunderbird and mail.app), Cloud storage apps (Nextcloud) and they all work on my Mac, Linux and i-devices.
So I think the siren effect @Bmosbacker mentions at the start does not really work on me.
It still is a very nice moment in my day when I open up the MPU forum and look through the new posts. Bit disappointed when they read like “Notion v2…”, “markdown editor v213475.8 released” and so on, but there’s usually enough interesting material to read through or people to help/support. So hope we can keep this up for years to come!!
I also think of this as my main ‘social media for tech’. Mainly because I like the folks here and their excellent - useful perspectives.
That all makes sense, but you might still check out the Tony Miceli episode. Different perspective, and he plays a little music on it!
Yup - I am THAT old! Hee Hee! 
Don’t you just hate people like that? 
Hey, give me a little credit. At least I freely admit my fault and I have remained pretty consistent on all the default apps. 
So you now have permission to hold me accountable.
But, beyond those, I remain free to try and use other apps not offered as default options.
I’m also non-obsidian, and for precisely the same reasons as you!
I have also experienced the sirens call, but some time ago I had re-designed my work flows and the apps that support them. My system is work quite to my liking, and the temptation factor dissipated greatly. My conclusion–anecdotal, and specific to me, though it may apply more broadly–is that the temptation of the siren’s call is greatest when there is some element causing friction in my system. Thus, it’s a good signal to me to rethink my system and consider whether I need to swap out a tool. In that case, at least for me, the siren is a good thing for me: a canary in the coal mine, if you’ll forgive my mixing of metaphors.
I also agree, as nobody here will be surprised to learn, that I agree completely with the comments about the very high signal to noise ratio, how helpful and friendly people are here, how supportive, and how useful it is that real people who use these real apps and tools in their very real lives share how they work, why they work, and the like. I feel like you all are family and my association with you has helped me to improve so much of my daily work and organizational systems. Truly remarkable what we have here.
It is remarkable, don’t you wish the entire Internet was more like this forum?!
I’m honored to be even named in the same sentence with Viticci but to modify a famous American political quip, “I’m no Viticci.”
I can only share my own experience and am happy to do so if it helps others.
I am not one that seeks a problem to a solution so I will only follow through on recommendations that serve a purpose for me, not because others like it. There are as many “to-do” apps as there are opinions about getting things done. I have settled and am happy.
The only 2 experiments I am doing at the moment are:
Consequently, I am taking in anything on these topics. I do search this forums history for solutions in case I have a problem that needs solved.
That said, I do actively use the core set of apps that seem to come by here daily: 1Password, Drafts, Omnifocus, Devonthink, Obsidian, Hazel, Keyboard Maestro, BetterTouchTool, Moom, Karabiner, Bunch, Raycast, SetApp, the RogueAmoeba suite, 2 Stream Decks and some more, so I do feel right at home…
I don’t think that mentions of software here drive me to purchases, but I pretty often will at least look into software that gets a favorable mention here. For the most part I don’t have a strong need to change what I am currently using, but I am always open to finding something that would work better that what I am using, so it’s worth a quick look at a website. Less often I download a demo version.
My addiction, sadly, it hardware, and I am a sucker for the “new shiny.” Having spent a few minutes playing with the new MBAir M2 in the store, it’s hard to resist the temptation for something that I really really don’t need (since I am currently using the 14” MBPro, and the draw of the MBAir is that cutting size and weight is always appealing, but there is no good excuse for having two laptops so close in size).
Temptation.
Not to further tempt you but I just bought my wife one in midnight. A nice machine.
Oh, I am already tempted, but with a 14” MBPro already, I cannot justify the Air. It would be redundant, and it makes little sense to trade in the MBPro for the Air, since I would be taking a huge step down in capability (the MBPro has 32GB and 4TB, M1 Max, so highly spec’d out).
What I will most likely wind up doing is getting a Mac Studio, rather than an Air, since I am working so much at my desk at home that there is some sense in having a desktop. That way the 14” can live in my bag most of the time. At some point I imagine there will be a need for someone in my family to have an upgrade, and then I will consider whether the hand down the 14” and get an Air, but we will see.