There's a lot of wisdom here.
Some people are collectors so they collect, and some people are intensely ccurious and like to go deep into things that spark a passion, and figure it all out. I did that with a lot of things in my life, I like scratching the itch of my curiosity. I also have been a fine artist, both a painter and sculptor, so instuments are also functional art to me. I was later a dealer in antiques, vintage images, and other memorabilia (which I have since let go), so I have the collector mentality too. It resulted in a ton of fun, since for many years I was tied down by my jobs and struggle for consistent income, but I never bought anything when I didn't have a good surplus of funds in the bank, like 5-6 months rent, etc.
Currently I have had a change in life circumstances and I could now afford a Moore Bettah, but I can't get on the list. But, now, I don't really want one!
I think they're stunning, but I have a closet full of ukes and I don't need them all, and I'm not focusing on them at the moment, I am loving my 24" scale parlor guitars. I have the ukes balanced in between and on top of guitars in that small closet and I realized it's time to move a bunch of them along too. I really like all of the ones I have but don't need them. I don't want my stuff to own me. Now that I have even more stuff that was dumped in my lap to disperse, it's going to be a full time job for awhile on top of my other job, but I want to slim down and declutter my life, and don't want to leave a mess behind for someone else to deal with if I expire suddenly. If I had a bigger house than 700sf it would be way easier!
I don't regret too many of my purchases, only the ones that had issues that were not disclosed by online sellers. I have pretty much bought 95% used, and I move them along either mostly breaking even and sometimes getting a profit from fixing them up, because I enjoy doing that too, or not losing much and sometimes giving them away. So other than taking up space in a small house, it ceased being a problem once my spouse understood it was like his model cars (WHICH COVER EVERY FLAT SURFACE!). So, truce.
We don't go out to eat, we don't travel, my car is a 2002 and I like it fine, we go to museums and ride bikes at the beach and enjoy our yard. Life is good. It's just priorities for what brings us joy. I figure as long as I'm not spending my retirement, have a cushion for unexpected expenses, and am willing to shuffle some if necessary, and am honest with myself, I think it's a healthy hobby. I know I love to look at guitars, I've learned a ton, I'm making a tiny bit of progress through my arthritis, and when I start looking thinking of buying, I remind myself I basically have a small shop in my closet (and a few cases stacked around), so I go pick up a different one I haven't played for awhile. I played two steel stringed parlors back to back a couple of days ago, an old dinged up original P-01 Larrivee that just knocked my socks off since the last time I had it out and went "Eh", and an Alvarez Masterworks all solid 'hog. They were both around $500 used and they both sounded remarkable. The weather must be to their liking! So I'm really blessed to have two great guitars (I have more, but those two are enough, the rest are gravy).
I think when it stops being a thing of joy and we aren't playing, practicing, learning and growing, then maybe it's become something else.