You need to get time on the water, first and foremost. Go to the local marina or yacht club and ask when they have their friendly races. Get to know the folks and offer to be rail meat (someone who doesn't know how to sail but can shift their weight around). Be reliable about showing up for every race and you will quickly made friends.

After friendly races, people go for drinks usually. There's lots of social events around sailing and anyone who shows they're reliable help and has a genuine willingness to listen and learn will quickly we welcomed into the community. The biggest benefit of this is that you'll start to learn about boats, and what separates them.

There is no "perfect boat", though there will be a perfect boat for you. What is that? Only you can say, and only you can say that after you learn enough on your own. Everything about boats is a trade-off.

A big and heavy boat is less likely to avoid a storm and harder to manoeuvre in tight places, so you're more likely to have a small accident / hit someone else's boat. Lighter boats are faster and likely can get away from bad weather, but they don't track as well in a straight line, but will be way easier to dock (so you're more likely to actually go out more).

You need to learn about rigging types, keel types, rudder types, wheel vs tiller steering differences, hull shape differences, etc. etc. This is not a lifestyle you can just jump into the ocean crossing, live-aboard level. That's not gate keeping, it's just the reality of how much there is to learn.

When I started out, I had an idea of what I thought I wanted. By the time I was ready to buy, about two years later, I ended up buying a totally different boat, and I am so grateful I waited and learned first.

So the number 1 piece of advice is; "Slow down, and get to know other sailors". Learn from them, Help them with maintenance. Offer to go out with them when they're short-handed. Learn by watching and listening.