For some background-

I have a big fancy greenhouse with a room at the back that stays nearly constant temp.  In that room I'm fermenting grains for chickens and pigs, sprouting fodder for cows and sprouting all of my plants for the greenhouse.  I have power, water, nice clean concrete floors and walls that are sealed and painted...  So I have reserved a corner for brewing.  I've never brewed, but I have literally tons of barley, wheat, oats...  I'll even be growing my own hops, although I'm just planning on buying some to get me going and last a year or so for now.

so I want a nice set-up for brewing.  Not a 5gal pail or a little system that has to be fed something out of a box.

Maybe I need a good book to start with, but I also just want to start setting up some nice equipment.  It's getting cold and muddy outside so playing with the brewing through the winter sounds awesome.

Read Palmer's "How to Brew", make sure it's the latest edition.

Then, although it sounds like you want to jump in head first without seeing the bottom, I'd recommend maybe dialing it back to just a cannonball -- with an electric all-in-one (eBIAB) unit, like Grainfather, Brewzilla, or the dozen other similar options.  Then you can keep the equipment very nice but simple, while you learn the practical side of the other  aspects.

I started on gas/coolers, transitioned to partial electric, and eventually built my own 20gal eBIAB system exactly how I thought I wanted it. Starting off with a commercial eBIAB would have been really nice.

One of the cool things with brewing is the some of the first pieces of more economical setup will still be useful as you expand. I still use stuff from my starter kit from over 10 years ago. Some of brewing is trial and error and seeing what works for you/what you like to do. So it isn't necessarily a good thing to go HAM right off the bat. There's a lot of ways to go about it and diving in too fast could make it overwhelming. But, if you wanna buy once cry once, set a budget and get to buying!

I still use my cooler set up for the hot liquor tank and mash tun. I recommend going with a 15 gal boil kettle, less risk of boil overs and can handle more volume for longer boils/bigger batches/etc. You can go gravity or pumps. Etc.

It's a lot of fun. But don't be ashamed of doing a few extract or partial mash(brew in a bag method) brews in a $100 starter kit just to learn the basics.

How much do you plan to drink?

Are you going to go pro/commercial one day?

I say start with a cheap kit. There’s a good chance you mess things up and make some masterpieces. The beginner set let’s you learn what you like, what you don’t, etc. while some stainless 200+ gallon tanks would be awesome it seems like you may wind up in over your head

No, but I'd like to drink only what I make, so batches of 5 gallons every month seems a bit light.  I guess.  Also I just know that in general if you get good equipment you don't have to buy much later, I don't need huge stuff, I just don't want to brew a tiny batch once a month and think I'm getting by.

I dunno.  Maybe I need to simply do more research...  @AnvilUSMC I'll call you this weekend.  

I don't mind spending a bit more to get some good parts that won't need to be upgraded later and (if possible) make it easier to get good results.

Some of the new single vessel BIAB systems from places like Clawhammer Supply look great.

A lot of things end up being designed with some modularity in mind, sometimes starting off with a single vessel you can upgrade to 3 vessel brewing down the track.

Pressurised fermentation is getting cheaper and cheaper too.

This looks interesting.  Anyone use these?

https://spikebrewing.com/pages/spike-plus-kettles

What kind of beer do you drink regularly?

Anything but IPA, but wheat beers and Pilsner are probably the favorite.

I’ve only spent a few minutes here and there looking at what I’d like to have, the Clawhammer stuff really looks good.

It's your money, spend it as you wish.

That said, I would start with a basic kit, see if I liked doing it before going in whole hog.  Do read a book or two, watch a few videos.

Good luck!

Eta: if you're gonna use your own grains, then yeah, you gotta learn also to malt and kiln those grains. You really do need to do some reading.

I recall the clawhammer setup looking like an impressive value proposition compared to previous systems.
Amazingly also, the current Blichmann BrewEasy electric setup also has been repriced/rearranged to be competitive (it used to be the "premier, and expensive" setup)

I have 5 gallon and 3 gallon carboys and 1 gallon bottles.

I can have 3 different brews going at the same time.  I bottled my 5 gallons of pale ale on Sunday.  My 1 gallon mead might be done in a month.  I'm considering ramping up to a 3 gallon mead recipe next.  I might start another 5 gallon beer brew at the same time.

You can screw up your concoction even with an expensive setup, and you can get a nice buzz with a plastic pail configuration.

Reality check...what are you gonna do to serve said beer?
Honestly....bottled beer takes a lot of room and time to process. Kegerator set ups are expensive and set up to take 5 gal corny kegs or commercial style sixtels, ponies or 1/2 barrel kegs.

For easy to learn, good equipment. Anvil foundry 10.5 will make 6 gal batches. Get a couple 8 gal fermenters and always have batches ready and going. Spend the money on good conicals if you can, no need for “secondary”.