It's not just the tools, it's the whole system.
I picked up a load of ex MOD gear a few years ago dirt cheap, Among it was a lovely roll of the really thick masking grade 3m kapton tape, and a few full rolls of Omega 63/37 with fast flow flux 2% flux. It blew my mind just how much better these products were than the standard store bought products.
That solder is £40-60 for 500g's compared to £20 for some cheap lead free stuff from amazon. But holy shit it's a night and day difference.
Equally flux. You can't solder without it. Well you can but it looks like shit - See above. A couple of cheap rosin blocks is a couple of £. A few dropper bottles (ask anyone you know who vapes), and some Isopropanol alcohol. Fill the bottles about 50% with IPA then break up one of the rosin pucks and put different amounts in the bottles... Will give you some really good flux for very cheap, and different grades for different work... Thin and low content for clean work, High content thicker for dirty work and wires. Ebay Colophony flux and you should see the little tins, It's a brittle tree sap. You can also just dip the tip in it. Smells divine.