SATA SSD prices are not much lower than NVMe right now, so buying SATA over NVMe is not the best idea. Also, new SATA SSDs are mainly QLC or old series that have problems with larger data or multitasking.
HDD vs. any SSD is another story. It's wrong to even compare them in most daily tasks on modern multi-threaded software (even popular web browsers). HDDs are mainly for backups nowadays.
Any SSD is good for most users. You can often see the difference between SATA SSD and NVMe SSD, but because the most important things are read bandwidth and low queue random operations, it doesn't matter so much if you don't load large data. Barely anyone is moving huge files between drives to take advantage of high sequential bandwidth, so all those 7GB/s+ numbers are more for marketing purposes.
I mentioned in some other threads that I especially like the latest DRAMless NVMe SSDs. I mean a series on Maxio controllers and some new Phison. Series that run cool, are cheaper, and still perform like higher PCIe 4.0 x4 TLC/DRAM series. I was using one of those in my gaming PC, switched recently to Crucial T705, so it is about the fastest single SSD you can get in stores (it was a review sample as I wouldn't buy it), and there is no visible difference. It was expected, but I just thought I didn't want to sell it, and it was higher capacity and promised better results. I will test it on some other software, but in popular, even demanding games that load a lot of small files, it's barely visible.
The main problem for more demanding users (like heavy multi-threading and more professional work on larger files) seems to be too small cache and problems with longer queues on more affordable SSDs. QLC NAND is another thing that is not always specified. Small cache+QLC usually ends on huge performance drops after a while of higher load work. I mean, for 1-2 minutes, it runs at 2-3GB/s, and then it drops to 150-200MB/s. On TLC NAND, it's also clearly visible, but not as much as on QLC. I also don't remember it being so common on SATA SSDs.
Most price comparisons do not divide SSDs between TLC and QLC. Prices for all went up, but more TLC series were replaced with QLC in the last year. Looking at the average prices, we get SSDs at about the same price as year ago ... but worse products at the same price.
The highest series are about 20% more expensive than a year ago. Many mid-shelf series are now QLC. All new 2230/2242 SSDs are now QLC, while a year ago, they were only TLC. I mean, most SSDs for branded laptops, tablets, and handheld gaming consoles are QLC. Most high-capacity SSDs are QLC, too, and this trend will continue as QLC is cheaper and available at higher capacities.
