eARC vs ARC - how essential is this in a budget reciever?

Title explains it, I have a 2.0 channel setup with Polk Monitor 60s and looking to upgrade from a 15 year old Pioneer receiver. Been seeing a lot on here/online about ARC vs eARC protocol (which my TV supports both) and was wondering how critical it is to have eARC in a reciever? It appears that many budget receivers out there (new and used) lack eARC, and the ones that do are also 7.2 channel (which is overkill for what I need). Any and all thoughts are appreciated, thanks!