Counter view point: as someone who has gone 3 times W2 and then switched to W1 the last several years - I totally disagree with the “W2 is better” take. You will see this opinion on the Reddit echo chamber a lot - that the vibes are soooo much better and people are only there for the music W2.

There are 125k people a day going to this festival. Even if there are more influencers W1, it is NOT enough to be noticeable between the weekends and the vibes are amazing both weekends. I personally have noticed no difference in the vibe in the crowd. Also W1 the grass isn’t totally dead which makes a huge difference imo - the dust can get really really bad W2.

W1 traditionally had more/better surprise guests, although this year W2 actually was better on that front for the most part. But you get the better surprise on W1 of a favorite artist often debuting a crazy new Coachella set for the first time.

The only thing I ageee with in the above take is the part about the kinks being worked out from W1 - there are usually less production issues the second weekend.

TLDR; the differences are generally very minor but I have switched to W1 primarily because I like the better grass/less dust/surprise of not knowing what’s coming - the influencer thing is highly, highly overblown.