When working on hobby projects it's possible to skip Engine gernerations, unless you need to use the latest stuff.

I skipepd A6 and directly went from A5 to A7. I don't regret the money I paid, because A7 is a LOT more advanced than A5 - but keep in mind that it's quite hard to learn all the stuff which changed between the engine generations.

In fact I was impressed how many changes there were.