Hello there, knowledgable people 
I've recently got an idea to try aerial photography. No previous drone experience whatsoever, so I've started with my research. DJI lineup looked solid enough, I've started looking closer. My current sweet spot between cost and features is Mavic Air 2. At the same time, I've managed to borrow a DJI Spark from a friend, and I've flown my first very shakey flight today. Now, I understand that confidence comes with experience, but I'm curious, how much of a similarity should I expect between Spark and MA2? I'm primarily after things that are not obvious from plain spec comparison for a person new to the topic. For example, I had another flight where Spark decided that its compass is not responding all that well, switched to attitude mode and started dancing all around the place. I've ended up crashing into a wall at a knee height - but I can only imagine my panic if a thing like that would happen at high altitude or far away from me. The VLOS rule also seems to be a bit of challenge - I don't think I've gone out further than 60m, but it was already bit difficult to work out which direction the aircraft is facing.
In other words - I'm motivated by possiblities of photos and videos I could potentially make, but after that first flight also painfully aware that it'd be a slow iterative learning process, hopefully not paid in drones sacrificed to the gods of gravity and water. I'm about 80% convinced that I'd end up buying MA2, but I do wonder how much easier to handle it'd be for a novice.
Thanks for any perspective you can offer here!

I've recently got an idea to try aerial photography. No previous drone experience whatsoever, so I've started with my research. DJI lineup looked solid enough, I've started looking closer. My current sweet spot between cost and features is Mavic Air 2. At the same time, I've managed to borrow a DJI Spark from a friend, and I've flown my first very shakey flight today. Now, I understand that confidence comes with experience, but I'm curious, how much of a similarity should I expect between Spark and MA2? I'm primarily after things that are not obvious from plain spec comparison for a person new to the topic. For example, I had another flight where Spark decided that its compass is not responding all that well, switched to attitude mode and started dancing all around the place. I've ended up crashing into a wall at a knee height - but I can only imagine my panic if a thing like that would happen at high altitude or far away from me. The VLOS rule also seems to be a bit of challenge - I don't think I've gone out further than 60m, but it was already bit difficult to work out which direction the aircraft is facing.
In other words - I'm motivated by possiblities of photos and videos I could potentially make, but after that first flight also painfully aware that it'd be a slow iterative learning process, hopefully not paid in drones sacrificed to the gods of gravity and water. I'm about 80% convinced that I'd end up buying MA2, but I do wonder how much easier to handle it'd be for a novice.
Thanks for any perspective you can offer here!