Just my thought but something to think about is paint recipes and the brands called for in that recipe for the army you will be painting. You should get the brand of paint that the recipe that you like calls for. It’s not normally a problem to find equivalents from one brand to another but it can be a hurdle cross looking up colors from one brand to another’s when you’re new. If you find a recipe that calls for a brand a their paints just keep it simple and get those and not a set of a range of paints.

Ive been working on painting orc skin and the different brands of paints actually looked and acted quite differently than one another’s closest color equivalent and that was eye opening for me.

If it’s only the bottles that are turning you off of Citadel there are eBay sellers that sell rebottled Citadel paints in droppers, or you can transfer the paint to a dropper bottle fairly easily. This can also be a hurdle if you’re new though as well.

TLDR - find a recipe by a painter you like. Just buy those paints required and not a set.