This question depends on two things.
First if you want to be involved in the crypto market is it for profit seeking, growth of the network or both?
Second do you feel very assured that the money you invest in the crypto market will be a worthwhile investment, i.e. is the risk worth the reward?
My experience involved buying cards to mine, in order to hedge my bet against a collapse of the crypto market earlier this year. I still feel that purchasing the equipment is the safer bet in the sense that you still have a physical product that has some utility.
If you are tech savvy, don't mind spending large portions of your free time working on your rigs and properly cooling them, you will have a fun project on your hands. Some people advocate away from people mining because an increase in network difficulty reduces rewards but i prefer an army of hobby miners controlling the network than a bunch of render farm giants moonlighting on the crypto networks.