I have thousands of dollars of modern photography equipment. But, if I were to try to use it to take pictures in good lighting, that people will only be viewing on screens (not printed), I would struggle to make photos any better than a flagship smartphone (iPhone, pixel, Galaxy). Start with good lighting and a smartphone: there is an LED softbox kit on 'zon for $100. That plus a white sheet, and some experimentation with a decent smartphone, will give you great results with a very fast and intuitive workflow. If your smartphone allows manual control over settings (apeture, iso, shutter speed), then learn to use them on the phone in order to inform an eventual DSLR or mirrorless ILC purchase.
If you find later that your use case demands something specific (shallow DOF, very large print sizes, macro close ups, whatever), then it is time to research the tools that you'll need (sensor size, lenses, lighting, AF features, computational photography tools, post processing software, etc.).
A cheap DSLR will almost certainly be disappointing, especially with a kit lens and poor subject lighting.