Seconded. I have two Weller TCPs and a while ago decided to buy the Pinecil just as a way to support the folks at Pine64. Well, it turned out it's a really good iron, and I use it along the Wellers without noticing any difference.

Similar story: went from a series of bad cheap irons to a good cheap iron and it was like night and day.

I still struggle occasionally, but that's when connecting enameled copper to 1.27 mm crenellated edge connectors, and in my book that's a task where "struggling" isn't actually that bad.

I've had a $100 Weller and a $25 Yihua soldering station and found them pretty comparable to each-other.

What's most important is that you get an electronics soldering _station_ of some type and not a basic plumbing/electricians iron that is just a pen on a cord. Those are extremely frustrating for working on a PCB.

Yeah. I went from various cheap irons to an equally cheap Yihua station, and it's such a quality of life improvement. You don't have to try to fight a too-short cord that's about to pop out of the socket, and the station is a good place to stick a durable rest for the iron that's much heavier than the stupid little stands they sell with pencil irons.

Agreed, the Pinecil is amazing. Get it as your first (and probably only) soldering iron.