I have several Wood River planes. The V3 versions have all been improved. But all planes must be tuned up to work right. One reason the Veritas and Lie Nielsons are so costly is they are tuned up at the factory. If you buy any plane, you'll want to make sure that bottom is flat and square to the sides. You can upgrade cheapo blades to Hock "iron" to improve performance, but that won't help if the body is not flat and square. Problem with new planes is that if you grind on the bottom with sandpaper, then discover it isn't really flat and square, you may not be able to return it.
Use a high quality engineer's square to make an initial assessment. For flat, you can draw a squiggle the length and width of the bottom, retract or remove the iron, and lap it on sandpaper attached to a true flat surface (table saw for example) and see what part of the line doesn't come off. If marks on opposite corners don't come off, you have a twist and a BAD plane. I have not had to do much flattening with my Wood River planes. I also have a Stanly block plane that turned out to be about perfect. Just some blade sharpening and a tiny bit of flattening and it was ready to go.
There are lots of good videos on tuning planes and sharpening blades. Watch a few and you'll get the idea. I don't know how I ever got along without the block plane.
If I were only going to get 2 planes, one would be a block plane, the other would be a Wood River 4 1/2, which has a little wider iron than the classic #4. I alos have a #6 and a rabbit plane (a cheapo) that I carefully tuned and ground to be a good and useful performer.
Hand planes are addictive. When you plane a surface rather than sand it, the wood fibres are sliced clean so you get a baby bottom smooth surface that sanding can't match. Trimming end pieces to exact fit is so much easier with a wicked sharp block plane than trying to do it with a saw or sandpaper. For sharpening, search "Wicked Sharp" on YouTube.
Finally, there is a sound, sssssssssshhhhhhiiiiiiiissssss, when using a plane that is far more satisfying than the growl of a motor.