Like Bill I also have a Zoom recorder (an old Zoom H2 that is mentioned on Mudcat from years ago and is still going) which I use a LOT. I record all our practices and then use Reaper to edit and process them a bit. And have used that combination to record gigs etc

100% agree. It depends what you want to do. Again i have friends with wonderful (and expensive) gear that makes terrible noises because they don't know (too much effort to learn?) how to use it.

I made an album with a friend which used terrible mics and an AKai cassette deck as a preamp as I had nothing else and it is not too bad. (It's not folk but... What you can do with awful equipment and Cakewalk guitar tracks 15 years ago )