Never messed with arduinos specifically, but I’ve built a few projects throught the years with ESPs, those things are dirt cheap and very fun to work with! Nothing with motors though - mostly attaching them to sensors and batteries to collect data, or control lighting (LED/RGB strips, etc).

There’s just *way * too many interesting things in the world, and so little free time! It’s a tragedy really… :)

Hope you can find the time and life conditions to embrace the projects you love. Have a great day!