Hey Bryan. What made you "listen"? Just kidding......
Stick does have a tendency to doil out some sage advice from time to time and a good many times I wish I had listened more closely. Kind of reminds me of my son and I...........cept I look gooder.
I've seen the Wood River and Bench Dogs but really haven't seen them up close. I look at those and then the Lie-Nielsen and Lee Valley and wonder where the major differences are. I'm in the same boat and need to get one soon as I have a number of projects that have a good many tenons that will need smoothing as for now I'm cutting them at the table saw. Sanding will work but take longer and likely not be as smooth.
And then the vice is absolutely needed when planing or at least some method of holding the work. You might consider making some dog holes for longer/wider pieces at some point.