Not in your target audience, but I can relate my buddies and my experience.
I already had booties and fins,. I bought a full reg setup with a dive computer, spg and compass. I also bought a new mask.
One dive buddy bought all the gear - wetsuit, booties, fins, regs, mask, wrist AI computer and BCD. He seemed to quit diving about four years ago.
The other one rented everything for years. He always claimed I was a fool for buying gear. Then his teenage daughter got into diving. During one dive, he thought his daughter was way too deep. It turned out that his dive computer was off on its depth. He then bought a Teric. Then came Covid. His wife made him buy regs for his daughter and himself. For our last trip, he bought gloves, booties, a hood, and a SMB (with spool). He now looks at BCDs and fins when at the dive shops.
I now own everything but tanks and weights. It's a PIA, but I'm happy. The dive knife screwed me when the international terminal at ATL was a zoo and I couldn't check my bag, even with being two hours early. Had I not had the knife, I would have been able to gate check the bag.
Edit: He is probably going to add a low pressure hose to his reg to inflate his SMB.