How much should a person spend to get a decent power conditioner?

It’s sounds like you are after both surge protection and trying to improve the sound? On surge I use a whole house, not expensive, but you need to replace when the pilot lites indicates the MOVs are no longer effective. Plus I use a very large commercial isolation transformer with its own surge protection panel feeding a dedicated subpanel to dedicated lines. The wiring isn’t costly, but the iso-transformer can be unless you are sourcing the naked transformer and have a way to install it to meet applicable code. (My unit is about the size of a large air conditioning box and sits outside- it is weatherproof and was built to spec as a finished product).
My concern about black boxes that actually do anything is that they affect the sound. I haven’t used any of the (end) point of use for a while for the main hifi for that reason, though virtually every other expensive appliance and my second hi-fi system do use point of use surge protection.
Dedicated lines are nice, no guarantee of noise free from common grounding with house and no surge protection. I would look at subpanel type protection for the dedicated lines if you can do that.

I’ve never messed with high powered regenerators which can get costly -- I was always concerned when they were (only available as) smaller units that they constricted current to the amps.

I am wondering about the possibility of positively affecting the sound stage. My power company is notorious for surges and outages so it’s not just aurally motivated, but protective as well. I am curious, if it’s all snake oil, why would people invest thousands of dollars for conditioners and power cables?

People invest thousands in conditioners and power cables because of their audiophile nervosa/insecurities and placebo effect. They also have more $$$$ than they know how to spend. First World problems. Manufacturers take advantage of this fact. If power conditioners really make such a big difference, why do companies like Parasound not produce any?

I’m not saying they can’t make a small improvement in a home with noisy AC, but most noise is component induced --from noisy transformers or less than ideal grounding schemes. Incoming AC is rarely the true culprit.

If you’re most concerned with surge protection, get a Brick Wall:

https://www.brickwall.com/pages/the-worlds-best-surge-protectors

These don’t rely on MOVs and will protect as well as any four figure "conditioner."

Thanks, helo.  I'm sure I will get varying opinions, but I am going to seriously investigate Brickwall unit.  I did  not see any prices in the link, maybe I just missed them.

On a complete sidebar, a helomech sold me my motorcycle. You don’t happen to live in beautiful Cenla do you?

@helomech- I believe the brick wall technology was developed by Zero Surge out of Frenchtown NJ, who sell their own units, from two outlet jobs to industrial sized panels.