But....but...but.....Tio, guitar forums aren't about pragmatism; they're about buying stuff.

I cannot count how many times I've seen people give up on learning how to play guitar, and in absolutely none of those cases was the guitar itself the reason. The ones who went on invariably purchased other guitars, whether it was for better ones or different ones. Would you tell someone who wanted to take up skiing to go out and buy equipment, or would you tell them to rent it for the first x times in order to find out if it was something that might be worth investing equipment money in? Same with any proposed hobby - start out slow and go from there. I'd really hate to see someone buy a $1000 guitar, only to be stuck with it later because it didn't pan out.

Like Tio, I started learning on a major POS (in hindsight, of course), in my case, a borrowed guitar. When I was ready, I got something better. Today's player is way luckier than I was in the 60s - we had the choice of junk Harmonies and Kays vs expensive pro-grade instruments. Now there are so many inexpensive good-playing guitars to choose from; it's a lot easier and a lot less risky for a beginner.