No such thing as a late answer in this thread.
After all, one may need months, maybe even years in some cases, to form a final opinion about importance of an acquisition.
It could even be something that you bought and then sold, and it would still be the best purchase of that year if it made you realize something or improve as a photographer or even as a human being.
Maybe a quick shopping trip to go replace a missing lens cap in next June will unearth your next missus? And it'll only be some time later that you realize she's the one. And a decade later you can come to the next thread, "What was your best purchase of 2022" to tell about your children and how the lens cap got missing in the first place.