I got a Serta Lautner executive chair as a gift, normally runs about $300 off sale. It has adjustable air-bladder lumbar support and is so soft I’ve taken naps in it.

I recently accidentally sheared a bolt holding one of the arms on because I failed to check it every 6 months, I called the support group and the lady on the other end was kind enough to waive the cost of the replacement kit and shipping. Cannot recommend enough.

Look into an office supply / overstock / reseller store around you. When businesses close up shop, they usually sell their desks, chairs, etc. to some kind of overstock store. You can usually go there and get very nice chairs for less then 1/4 of the normal cost

Got a refurbished steelcase for ~300 with no regrets.

Forget about gaming chairs, they’re overpriced for the sake of looking like a racecar seat.

Look at office chairs. For example https://www.autonomous.ai/ have good chairs at reasonable prices.

I can’t figure out why office chairs run so much more than easy chairs and are so much less-durable.

I got an easy chair quite some years back. I don’t think it even ran $300. At some point, I finally managed to muck up the recliner mechanism, but I’ve probably gone through five office chairs since I got that, some of which cost considerably more than that. The back wouldn’t stay up, or the the pneumatic cylinder would fail, or the mesh would weaken and the front of the chair would press up into legs. The office chairs generally didn’t have a headrest.

Honestly, given that I don’t actually work with paper at my desk, I’d kind of rather have an easy chair with some sort of mounting pole for the monitor and a keyboard/mouse tray.