dissolve in cold water, ONLY THEN add hot water. The rationale behind it is that aromatics evaporate too quickly when the instant powder is infused with too/boiling hot water.
Yes. I don't like it but sometimes I don't have time to make my normal pour over. Like lunchtime. Tastes pretty bad. Especially to a pour over coffee snob like me.
Yes, you do need the $40 brewer. And it’s best with fresh ground coffee so I’d recommend a burr grinder, but whatever pour over grind you use would work. https://aeropress.com
I would judge that pour over is higher tier. Search YT for vids, some people are sickly obsessive over how to do a pour. IMHO, pour over is second only to espresso.