There are lots of choices.

Weller and Hakko have excellent low end stations that will do everything a lot of collectors use.

Weller and Hakko have higher end stations, but they are not often discussed.

I use JBC.

Metcal and Pace make great quality stations as well.

Pick your poison. The fact that we are having a ford vs chevy argument about what is best kinda cracks me up.

I spent a grand on my last desoldering station. That's not gonna get me into heaven over anyone else, and doesn't mean I turn out better work than anyone else. But it does mean that I use my desoldering station enough that I justified buying the one I wanted - and haven't looked back!

My impact wrench - which I use on my cars, which is my hobby, was $85 at Menards. I use $25 sets of harbor freight impact sockets. My mechanic spent $500+ on his. I use mine a couple hours a week on a good week. He uses his all day.

A professional chef has better knives than I do as well.

$305 for a good soldering station isn't unreasonable at all if you use it enough to justify the expense.

I started doing board repairs with 2 WES51 stations, with 2 different sized tips. It worked, but my bench was crowded. The time invited to shut an iron down, wait for it to cool, and change the tips was significant. So I used 2. And tips lasted about a month. Not that they were all that expensive. It worked.

With JBC, I have 2 tips that primarily do what I need. I can change them as I use them. No need to wait, one slides out and the other slides in. They heat up by the time I need to touch the board. I have other specialty tips for things like drag soldering. The tips last over a year. I cut my soldering footprint in half. The tips are about $50 when ordering them - which is reasonable considering how long they last - but once I identified what tips I use, I started buying from eBay and since they last so long, I can hold out for deals. Haven't paid over $20 a tip since.

Now, I use my soldering iron for about 4 hours a day and can justify the expense to myself. It isn't for everyone, but I really like it!

And, I paid $200 shipped for my JBC on eBay, gently used. Later this year, I intend to buy a new one and relegate the current one to backup.

I still use the WES51s for playfield work.