SP 404 MK2 was my early honeymoon- read so much good stuff about it, absolutely hated the workflow. M8 wasn’t for me either, but I just struggled with the small screen…
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tried a friend’s Pulsar was ok but not for me. Love the Rytm so brilliant.
I love my SP 404 MK2 but it took while to gel with me. Disliked the M8 that I tried too small and quirky for me. Synths and music production are complex enough without trying to use a calculator to create beats! M8 felt like a music scientific calculator to me.
I’ve gone through two separate gear acquisition phases. About 25 years ago, I came into a good amount of extra cash. So, I carefully bought a master controller, amp, monitors, two rack synths, a mixer, a sampler, and a computer and software, over the course of about a year, with the help of magazines and a local guy at Guitar Center (really knew his stuff and didn’t push things). I still have much of that gear, and still use it (gave the controller away and replaced it with something more modern).
During the pandemic boredom, I decided to move outside the box with several new hardware synths, bigger mixer, midi router, effects pedals. All in all not much regret. The two things that have made me return or trade gear are either limitations on the sound/design I didn’t appreciate for a while, and UI disappointments (too difficult to do what I want to do). Both of these things are bit hard to determine without actually using the gear for a while. Now, though, when I watch reviews, I am keyed into both aspects, and pay more attention to them. It’s been nearly a year since I bought anything and the next things I buy, will be purchased with these two considerations front and center.
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Sounds like we’re on similar paths. Maybe you’re also curious about the Polyend Tracker Mini then? Like an M8 but with a better screen and a built-in mic.
I’ve tried to be more selective when originally buying stuff, but it still happens.
It depends on my goals at the time too. If I’m on a specific project, the new item has to work its way in instantly and without effort. This isn’t an impossible ask, I’ve had plenty of boxes fit right in quickly and canned a few that didn’t, filing them away in the “Maybe I’ll try it later” category.
Currently, I have an Octatrack on the way for the second time, and I’m planning to give myself a 6 month break on making any actual music, just to fuck around with this thing KNOWING that I will probably bash my head against the wall a few times and I want to allow some time to get more acquainted with it than I usually would a new piece of gear.
It depends on the item too. I have a higher expectation of immediacy from a “sound source” than I would something that becomes a whole workflow in itself.
Even if I know something’s prolly not gonna work it takes about a year to psych myself up for that financial hit that I know is coming when I sell it. Which gives plenty of time pull it out of storage and give it a 2nd, 3rd or even 10th chance.
But if it’s gone into storage I generally remember why I put it there pretty quickly. Latest is the SubH, great sounding synth and had a bit of fun for about a week until I got tired of fighting with the sequencer (again).
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Intrinsical advantages if one had experienced and moved along so much gear to reach a plateau - would be that knack to know what more can a said device possibly offer, and more quickly assimilate new product specifications. That’s besides developing a first layer of defence against GAS.
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Absolutely true …
As for research … maybe it’s about research AND having quite a good gut feeling, what might be a keeper or not.
As an example … I had this with the Arturia MatrixBrute … just some videos from NAMM Show, an idea and some basic “understanding” that this flexibility would be a great asset … I pre-ordered … and it is a keeper.
When the Moog One was hyped, I checked a couple of decent sources, listen to the sound, and it was … a mighty instrument indeed … but having already more than one Moog in the studio, it wasn’t that overwhelming or “a want to have”.
IMO the honeymoon ends early, if we jump on a train, because we see many others jump, or a hero is onboard, but don’t ask ourselfs, whether this train is going to a place we really want to be … or we just don’t know our destination yet, but this can be changed 
Not necessarily …
An often in this formum given advice for the OT is like this: just work on one feature at a time and develop a good understanding before taking the next step.
IMO the single features are not too hard to master. The combination of many features is complex and can be overwhelming indeed.
I find I tend to know almost immediately whether I’m going to gel with an instrument or not. Some stuff like the Korg Electribe 2 I never liked.
Things I’ve sold have tended to fall into two camps
- I found them fiddly to program (A4, Blofeld)
- I got tired of the sound or wasn’t finding a use for them (Nyx, Korg Volcas)
Weirdly there’s not much gear that’s slowly grown on me, except maybe Ableton?
So much this. For me the workflow of a piece of hardware is incredibly important. So many times there’s a review of something that requires some weird shortcut or strange menu tango and I just nope out.
Mind you I find the M8 super easy to work with so who knows…
You just need Ableton Live and a Push 2, amigo… 
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Haha not very portable though. 