^-- I took the above perspective for my first try at Ryokan. On our first trip to Japan, we spent one night at a pretty pedestrian Ryokan inside the city of Kyoto. I think we spent between $100 and $150 per person. This way, it was a low cost exposure to the experience. Our place had nice food and a nice garden, but nothing special on the baths. We got to see that on our next trip we wanted to go all out, and on that trip we stayed in a nice place near Hakone with a private outdoor bath attached to our room.

Deciding the right path comes down to things like: whether you expect to go back to Japan, or how do you feel about the risk of spending $600+ on something that turns out not to be your thing versus the risk of missing out on a unique experience that you would have enjoyed.