It's attention, not money, we should budget

30% room might be good if you have a dedicated listening room, but I think it's a bit much for a room that serves a multitude of purposes.... 

Maybe.  What if you keep the stereo in mind when selecting your home furnishings, and rugs, and maybe throw some panels on the ceiling?

My take…No doubt your room is very important.  Percentages are just a rough guide that may or may apply very differently to audio junkies.  They are most applicable to dedicated  room treatments or construction and may very minimally apply to living areas. Sooo many factors are involved that sku the percentages. In my living area working off a corner, valted ceiling, open access, built-ins, furnishings…very little can and needs to be done and it works out pretty well. Tried temp panels and drapery fabric with no improvement and ended up just using a bass trap in the corner behind my system.

Yikes… I know when shopping for home furnishings with my wife the stereo system does and will never take priority or even be considered or discussed.  i am enjoying my happy relationship and her tolerance as it is now 🤣.

1) Speakers and room

2) Speakers and room

3) amplification 

4) cleaning out the ear wax.

….everything else.

I agree....there is very little correlation between price and performance and clearly speakers make by far the largest difference, followed by the quality of the recording and then the other electronics.

As others have said, the choice of speakers matters the most, regardless of relative cost to the whole.  Buying used high end gear at a reasonable fraction of MSRP can change the relative cost/investment proportions quite a bit.  It can take a bit of time to vet the upstream electronics, but once you settle that, it's all about the music.