Photography used to be my fave hobby (can't afford 'em watches those days), and that was during the real analogue camera days- I am talking about Nikon FM days, films, filters, lenses, etc. To develop film costed quite a fair bit, so you learnt to sharpen your skills such that there was minimal loss through lousy photographs.
I embraced the digital SLR when it came along, then went into bridge cameras as the technology matured such that the smaller footprints could in fact challenge the actual SLRs.
These days, I tend to take photos just via the smartphone. Why so, you'd ask. Just look at the quality from iPhone and Samsung, and don't get me started on Huawei with its Leica double lens. Lots of in-built filters, and the aperture, speed, etc could be tweaked to suit your intended subject matter. Heck, there's even optional add-on lenses these days (although quality was still relatively poorer than SLRs in this aspect). It's no wonder that smartphones are taking over the roles of cameras these days. If you really want to develop your skills with a camera but can't afford an SLR as yet, the bridge camera would be an equally good option. Just click and click, and push the envelope further. Have fun!