A cooler upgrade is particularly worthwhile when new processors are installed or older systems are subjected to higher loads.

For now, I'll focus on smaller quality-of-life upgrades to my overall desk setup, like cable management and other new bits ...

Unless you're already at the end of your upgrade path, upgrading your CPU to something within platform doesn't only dodge the potential requirement for new RAM (if you were to go from DDR4 to DDR5), ...