great post Sent - very relevant to this hobby. I am aware of my own buyer's remorse and have been very careful with what I buy. For example, I am convinced of Topre goodness so I focused only on Topre caps and artisan caps, which fortunately, there are not many variety - I mean, how many RealForce Topre key caps can one get? And there's only two variant of HHKB keycaps (blanks and printed, black or white). So, in a way, I minimize my lust. But still, I succumbed to a recent JD40 by CTRLALT and then GMK Dolch and then 2TU Korean custom. Fortunately, I love all of them and now I am slowly inching my way to collecting artisan caps in MX, lol! As for artisan caps, I think the possibilities of buyer's remorse is EVEN higher, which was what I get with Gas Mask caps, so now I am only focusing on CC and BB, and an occasional Dolly.
This hobby is brutal!