I think it’s kind of the same. Once you get technique down a master can see with the cheep-o machine and get amazing results.
I say go get yourself a used machine and just play around with it. I made Halloween costumes out of stuffed animals and old clothes for my first project and it turned out really good.
Don’t over complicate it. 3 copies: backup, main, and offsite; 2 different media: hdd and data center; 1 offsite. I like blackblaze but anything from google to Amazon will work.