Hey welcome to the keeb community! It’s nice to see new people join the hobby.
So here’s my take. The hobby can be expensive if you let it be. It’s really easy to go down the rabbit hole.
There are several great resources out there like Keyboard University. You can also look under the Makers & Crafting category on twitch and ask questions in chat. There are also lots of discords to join where you can ask your questions.
Don’t rush into a decision and do realize that, depending on how picky you are, you may end up going through a few boards before finding your holy grail endgame board.
In my experience, I happen to join the hobby at a bad time (during COVID) so parts are pretty scarce. Because of this, my first board ended up being a HHKB Pro Classic which has Topre switches which I’m not super ecstatic about but some people swear by them. I recently ordered an ID80 case, some Durock stabilizers and pre-ordered the GMK Minimal 2 keycap set. I’m still undecided on what switch I want.
Generally speaking, you always want to clip/lube your stabs (stabilizers) and lube your switches. Certain lubes pair well with certain switch types. Some people do other mods like using foam sheets made of materials like sorbothane, polyeurothane to help dampen some of the echo you may see in some cases.
There are other aspects like gasket mounting and a leaf-spring plates in more premium boards like Keycult. It all depends on your budget and how patient you are to get what you want.