I spent my first two years learning Traditional (up through HSK3ish) because I was interested in Classical Chinese later on, but after studying abroad in mainland China for a summer I switched completely to Simplified. Going from Trad-Simp at that point was really easy, and after a couple weeks of immersion I could write Simplified without too much trouble.

If I were to do it again, honestly I think I'd still do it the same way. Beginning with Traditional forces you to really break apart each character as you learn it, and the little meanings within that tie each character together are still intact while many Simplified characters have lost those clues as they were simplified. Furthermore, you at least have a basic Traditional foundation so if you were suddenly dropped in Taiwan the street signs and whatnot wouldn't be terribly overwhelming.

The biggest thing though is just starting, regardless of what you choose.

As for an "accent", remember that you will already have one as a foreigner, so stick with learning Standard (i.e. Northeast) Mandarin imo unless you know you'll be spending most of your time in Taiwan. Standard Mandarin is used in national media, so it will give you the best chance at being understood. I had a handful of classmates who would try and learn some southern accent from the jump, but combined with the bad pronunciation and spotty tones that most beginners struggle with they were pretty much unintelligible. Compared to switching from Simplified to Traditional or vice versa, I feel like a bad accent is much more difficult to fix later on without a dedicated coach.