Looking to start afresh in this game as a low-spender but will really like if the start point is even where everyone else isn't like a gazillion levels above me.
Of course, I'm expecting to spend abit of money(few hundreds)

I'm not trying to be offensive but your expectations have no basis in reality.

You are starting late ( not that big of a deal if you had a bigger budget ). You have the ability to run 10 crests a rift which is the equivalent to a 10 pull in other gacha games. Around 30$ a rift or pull depending how familiar you are with gacaha terms.

If you are running free rifts then both items and gems have a daily cap so do not expect to be able to progress without spending money.