I greatly enjoyed brewing. I had a very high bar for what I would call "good beer" and my beer was exceptionally good. It is certainly an engaging hobby, both in study time and finances. Yes, you can get by on extract and buckets but if you want repeatable results and real control over the profile you'll have to make some investments.
When I quit drinking I sold all my gear. I still have a couple cases of 9.5% Baltic Porter that will age well for a couple more years that I have not decided what to do with.
homebrewtalk forums are the best imho.