Ask a new homebrewer what is on their mind and a huge fraction will say some version of "should I start with extract or go straight to all-grain?" It feels like the defining decision. It mostly is not. You can make excellent beer either way and disappointing beer either way, because the things that actually decide your beer's quality sit entirely outside this argument.
The two things that actually matter first
Sanitation and fermentation temperature. That is the unglamorous truth. Beer is made by yeast, and yeast is the actual brewer; you are just the yeast's assistant. Give it a clean environment and a stable, appropriate temperature, and it will reward you whether your sugars came from malt extract or from grain you mashed yourself. Get either of those wrong and the most sophisticated all-grain system in the world makes something you pour away.
What the grain choice really is
Extract versus all-grain is a question about control and involvement, not quality. All-grain gives you more levers to pull and more steps to enjoy or to botch. Extract gives you fewer variables and a faster brew day. Choosing between them is choosing how much process you want, the same way a cook chooses between scratch and a good shortcut. Both can be excellent. Neither saves you if the yeast was mistreated.
The honest beginner's order
Start with whichever gets you fermenting soonest — usually extract, because the brew day is shorter and there is less to go wrong on day one. Obsess about clean equipment and a stable fermentation temperature. Make a few batches. Then, if you find you love the process and want more control, move to all-grain because you want to, not because you think it is the secret. The secret was never the grain.