There are going to be horror stories for any brand. I personally have had nothing but bad experiences with Dell computers. But if there's one that checks all your boxes, has great reviews, and meets your price point, I say go for it.

That said, I do feel like I hear the worst and most frequent stories about HP.

I can't speak for the whole company, but their older business laptops have been good in my experience. I've worked for an airline, and a logistics company, and in both they had HP contracts. I know that Dell laptops felt more brittle, I saw more of them come back brokwn. Also getting them refurbished doesn't give them money, if you don't want to do that.