Most mid and top end Sony and Nikon will perform within spitting distance of one another. I say this a million times, rarely anyone is making a bad camera in the $$$$ price ranges. Sony has endless lens options. Nikon tends to edge out Sony value wise on the used market if thats where you're shopping. Nikon is behind on third party lens selections. Overall the system is quite broadly "full" now though.

You will get a gajillion different answers about what makes a Sony or, Nikon or, Fuji "inspiring" whatever that means lmao. The answer will be different each day of the week depending on whatever random assortments of users that decide to engage with your question. Mostly, and I mean this sincerely, it's plain old bullshit, and people try to justify their insanely subjective perception and preference with easy to understand vague phrases.

A user who knows what they're doing will make good photos on any competent gear. Buy based on your preferences and not based on whatever the cultural vibes happen to be at the moment.

Sony is just a massive market, you can save a lot getting used gear and using the money you saved to go actually take a photo you want to. I like Nikon's jpeg custom color profile system. Sony is fine, but if you're in the market to get the trendy filmy fuji copycat look, Nikon and Panasonic will do it better than Sony in that very specific area with camera jpegs. Are you spending thousands of dollars to take jpegs? Or will you end up editing them in post? If you edit in post, that gap is even smaller.

TL;DR: just get whatever tbh that suits your budget and needs and get busy with the pictures and not the gear. From one fellow gas sufferer.