There's certainly people that focus too much on minor details. And you really don't need to go into the 4-digit in spending to get very good coffee (especially

There's certainly people that focus too much on minor details. And you really don't need to go into the 4-digit in spending to get very good coffee (especially if you don't want Espresso). But I was a bit surprised how much small details can matter in brewing coffee. I'm using an Aeropress and an 1ZPresso handgrinder. I found that it helped a lot to do things exactly the same way each time. It reduced variability and made it easier to adjust a parameter like grind size. In particular I found stirring to be a really finicky parameter with a potentially large effect. If I stirred vigorously without changing anything else, the coffee got noticeably bitter. I switched to not stirring at all, it's mixed plenty just by pouring the water. Makes the workflow easier and reduces variability. So while I think there's plenty of ritual around coffee that has no real effect, I suspect the value lies in keeping to exactly the same method and performing all steps the same way each time.