How to choose a bike
Whenever I am asked a question like yours, I invariably ask back: "what are you going to do with that bike?".

As 90% of the time the answer is "dunno", the obvious suggestion is "go for an economical model that fares decently in most situations, then when you have found out what your cup of tea is and you still love biking, go for a more expensive choice".

And this advice is based on my own experience: in the times where having a mountain bike was cool, I rode an old 3 speed, steel frame from the '60s, my father's legacy. It was not cool maybe (nowadays we would call it vintage), but served my purpose.

Then for my first chosen bike in the early 2000s I went for a BSO city bike, sub brand of a major brand. Again, it was not fancy or cool, but I rode about 15 thousand km on it (including a holiday in the central Italy Apennines), discovering that what I like to do with bikes is commuting and touring.

Then my first serious bike was, and still is, a touring bike. I also own a cheap city bike, just because I don't trust leaving my touring model in an unguarded garage for thieves to pick up.

A friend who asked my advice in the past ignored it and went for a cool, expensive, full suspension off road model  (where we live the max rise is about 40 m and the only off road, except BMX tracks, is gravel roads in the countryside). He admittedly rode it for a bare 40 km and then sold it after 10 years to make room in his garage.