Lemmings and cliffs; kids and bridges.. Always good for a laugh, but then nitwits want to legislate the nitwits "safe".
Look, SMOK atties have a decent-following - their mods suffer horrible QC. Wismec? Well, the NC and NC v2 are nice, but I'd never buy anything else they made.. iJoy? Not interested. Joytech? meh.
HCigar is fairly good - Eciggity still sells the Vt133 DNA mod. (I think of it now as my Gold Standard). The Yihi SXmini M-class I got is another solid mod - as it should be for what they originally cost, (and still cost). The Gbox 200 is still holding up, so Geekvape is not awful. Eleaf Pico died - not mine at that point, new owner kept dropping it - but, my 100w and TC100w are still in the PIF/loaner/sale-bag. I'd like to try the Squeeze v2, but not enough to pay what is being asked. Never bothered with the Squeeze v1. Smoant is considered pretty solid, (as their old name Cloupor I was waay unimpressed). The Uwell Nunchaku is getting good reviews.
Any newb that is just going to buy from a store is most likely going to be robbed, so they might as well stick to the round stick-like stuff that are disposable. Or to something with a low cost using std 18650 - and not sensitive to BRAND NAME. (ie. the SMOK Osub baby tube only fits LG/HG cells, not 25R's and I didn't have my vtc5's to check in it).
For the entry newb, it's hard to fight the minimal investment in an Eleaf. Others might suggest Innokin. My biggest complaint when I was newb was those godrotted Ego/Twist buggers that would flake out in months.. If you are not replacing the battery, (using external chargers), expect waste/breakage every Quarter.. With an Eleaf, you can get at least a year of trouble free use if you expend at least as much safety/precaution as you would with a pair of new glasses.
Get a good charger, get no less than a 25R cell quality, buy at least 2 pairs. Get the apropos Eleaf. NOW you can settle on a subohm, RTA, or RDA. (and if you like RDA, then consider the Squeeze 2 and RSA).