Also a long time homelabber, with a lab that's run on a tight budget. There's no money for the latest and greatest, but today's white hot tech quickly falls out of favour and sooner or later finds it's way to the bargain basement. That's where it'll be.
It's at this point I'll be retiring older tech for newer old tech and so it goes on. Incremental upgrades, never finished.
On the whole, hardware wise, I'm very pleased with what I've got and don't feel I'm missing out, but that won't stop me looking for the next best thing my empty pockets can afford.