The longer I play, the less often I change....
My experience is probably familiar to others who've taken up the game in the last 6-8 years. When I started in 2018, manufacturers/brands included the stalwarts (Innova and DC) some established smaller brands (Millennium, DGA, Legacy) and a real marketing-driven push from some others (Prodigy, Discmania and Trilogy [especially Dynamic). So there were plenty of brand choices, on top of mold and plastic choices.
Next thing you knew, Infinite's house brand was making a splash, along with Kastaplast and Mint. More choices! And in the last few years, you've seen the rise of MVP/Axiom/Streamline (they were always there, but suddenly were in your face), along with the proliferation of smaller brands like Clash, LoneStar and so many others.
I've owned at least one disc (and often more like a half dozen) from every one of them - because of marketing promises, because of fear of missing out on that "one perfect disc". And most of them were resold, donated, given to friends, or put in a milk crate.
With all that experience with hundreds of discs for a dozen brands, I've come to the belief that I am best served by having most of my discs come from one or two manufacturers. Why? Not because I want to be sponsored - but because it helps me stop looking around at every single damned thing being released. And flight numbers, while meaningless across manufacturers, tend to be pretty reliable WITHIN a manufacturer (with allowances for differences between runs).
And that's helped my pare down the number of molds I bag - which in turn reduces the need to change much in my bag. Replacements as things get too beaten in or lost. Trying out the occasional new/different mold (but often finding that the new guy doesn't do anything my existing molds don't cover). I'm looking around less, buying less, and just really "tweaking" with different weights or plastics (mostly from my backup/fieldwork crate).
Probably the most stable the bag has ever been - and I'll admit, it took me four years to settle down and get here.
Current carry:
18 discs: 9 molds / 3 brands from 2 manufacturers
MVP/Axiom/Kastaplast