Honestly, I went through this exact same headache a few months back when I was helping my cousin build his first PC. We were looking at those same two boards. In my experience, the MSI PRO B650M-A WIFI is the better bet. Yeah, the boot time complaints were loud at launch, but after I flashed the latest BIOS for him and turned on Memory Context Restore, it was totally fine. Its way more stable than people give it credit for. The Gigabyte B650M DS3H is okay but I've had issues with their coil whine and fan software in the past. If you're shopping in Toronto, keep an eye out for the ASRock B650M Pro RS WiFi too. I've used that one in several builds recently and it's basically the gold standard for budget AM5 right now... really clean bios and stayed cool even during long gaming sessions. I've tried many boards over the years and ASRock really won me over lately.

^ This. Also, if you can find it in stock near you, Im super satisfied with the ASRock B650M Pro RS WiFi AM5 DDR5 Micro-ATX. Ive used this board in a few builds this year and honestly, no complaints from me. It just works well and feels way more solid than the DS3H. I know you mentioned keeping it under 150 and this one usually sits right around that mark or slightly above depending on the day. Its worth every extra penny tho. The build quality is surprisingly good for a budget board.

• You get three M.2 slots which is basically unheard of at this price point
• The white and silver aesthetic looks killer if you care about that
• VRMs stay nice and cool even during long gaming sessions
• BIOS is super straightforward and didnt give me any drama during setup Seriously, its been rock solid for me. I havent dealt with any of those crazy long boot times either after updating the bios. If youre buying in Toronto, definitely check if Canada Computers has a bundle deal because sometimes theyll knock the price down if you grab the RAM there too. Its a great little board that wont give you the headaches youre worried about. Lemme know if you run into any snags!

^ This. Also, I have been tracking the reliability of these budget boards for a while and the ASRock ones really are the safest play for stability right now. The MSI and Gigabyte options you mentioned are okay, but they definitely had more growing pains early on. If you want to avoid headaches, I would look at these two instead:

• Gigabyte B650M GAMING PLUS WIFI : This is a decent option that usually flies under the radar. It has better thermal performance than the DS3H and I havent seen as many coil whine complaints with this specific model.
• MSI PRO B650M-P : If you are on a super tight budget, this is a very basic board but it works well for a 7600 since that chip doesnt pull much power. Honestly, the most important thing for stability is just making sure you have a USB drive ready to flash the BIOS to the latest version immediately. Most of those bad reviews are from people running day-one firmware from a year ago. It takes ten minutes but saves you so much trouble later on. Feel free to ask if you need help figuring out the bios flashback process once you pick one.

To add to the point above: I've had issues with both those boards lately. The ASRock B650M-HDV/M.2 AM5 is unfortunately way more reliable and honestly wont give you many headaches.