The stock creality extruders are pretty trash. They have a tendency to not grip the filament well enough, or alternatively, grind the shit out of it leading to slippage.

My first upgrade on those machines is always a dual gear extruder. There should be a drop-in replacement for <$20 on Amazon. They're almost always coated in red paint, should make it easy to find :p

I don't have experience with Sovol, but I am a huge advocate of Klipper. I have an Ender 3 with Klipper.

My preference is to spend less time troubleshooting the printer itself and more time configuring Klipper - it has a bunch of customization/automation potential that will keep you plenty busy. An entry level printer will require some diligence and patience with learning all it's quirks. Maybe someone else can comment on the quality of Sovol, but from what I see, they have similar components and are priced similar to Creality offerings.

If you are okay with occasional frustration due to the printer (especially as it ages), I'd say go with the Sovol + Klipper or grab an Ender 3 + RPi for hosting Klipper. An additional $60 for Klipper preconfigured on the Sovol printer is probably more cost effective than a $50+ RPi given the time it takes to set up, but it really depends what experience you're going for.

I have a pack of M2-M5 screws + nuts + washers thats come in handy. Also, heat press inserts (if you have a soldering iron) can really help clean up designs. Again, I just have a M2-M5 pack with various lengths, and I think it even came with the soldering iron tips for each insert size.

I've had trouble finding Metric fasteners in my local hardware store, so I just buy variety packs online. Also, most 3D prints Ive run into use Metric sizes, with the occasional 6-32 screw here and there.

Zip ties are nice if you mess around with your printer or work on electronics (cable management).

Also, make sure [include mainsail.cfg] is present in your printer.cfg file. Apparently this is important when changing frontends (octoprint -> mainsail).