There are a lot of good ideas here. Thanks for posting them! 
I have been photographing for years and never heard the word “stacking” before. What does it mean?
I hardly use the automatic setting because my camera doesn’t do a good job in guessing the right exposure. My gear is old and falling apart. First the release button fell off after dropping the camera and now I have to use a paperclip to take pictures and last weekend my little flash broke. Despite all of these hurdles I can still take pictures. I will have to adapt to the new limitation of not having a flash anymore until I buy a new camera. I am limited with one fixed lens that it’s incredibly frustrating to focus manually so because of that I always use the automatic focus. However, this same lens is my saving grace because it it the only one that I have and when everything is right it can take good macro photos.
I think the quality of the gear is very important. So buy the best gear that you can afford. However, it depends, as some folks have already mentioned here, on your goals and what makes you happy.