Fun and interesting discussion. Whether it's worth it and has enough value to justify going Hermes or ceramic depends on how much you like ceramic or Hermes. Do you think ceramic is cool? I never heard of Hermes until Apple teamed up with them. And even now I don't feel the Hermes prestige. I guess their marketing hasn't worked on me yet. But I did explore and experiment and recommend that you do the same. Try out one of the "luxury" choices for a year or so, and see how it goes. You got the money as you have sort of told us your money situation. Not taking on one of the "upgrades" and you would be left wondering. The best way to answer your question is to experiment. Sounds like you're seriously leaning the Hermes way. I tried the band with the deployant buckle and thought it was great as it was fast to put on and lengthens the life of the leather. But the deployment has to lay on the bottom of your wrist and that depends on your wrist size. I read others who owned the Hermes got their kicks and decided to just get the steel for their next AW since they really only valued the leather bands and not so much the Hermes faces. In my short time with both the Hermes and the Apple bands, I thought they were both excellent. Hermes had the much prettier buckle and softer leather, but the Apple leather I thought was a good value in comparison. I'm sure there are even better values in 3rd party leather bands, but I stopped my exploration of leather bands as I felt it was too much effort to keep them dry. Btw, AW is essentially my first watch, so I didn't know and was told that leather bands can get smelly after a year or two of wear. So, leather bands only have a life expectancy of a couple of years.
I advocate for just taking the plunge because there always seems to be some surprise and whether it bothers you or not, you can only know by living with it.
