Regular pillow vs contour pillow for back sleeping — what ended up working better?

Falling asleep on your back seems simple until you realize how much the pillow changes everything. Some pillows make your neck feel perfectly supported for a few nights, then suddenly you wake up stiff and uncomfortable wondering what changed.

The confusing part is that contour pillows get recommended everywhere for back sleepers, but plenty of people still seem to go back to regular rectangular pillows after trying them. Makes it hard to tell whether contour designs are actually better long term or just one of those things that sounds good in theory.

Do most back sleepers here prefer the “dip” shape of contour pillows or do you sleep better on a normal pillow? Did it help with neck tension or headaches at all? Also if people found certain materials worked better, because memory foam seems to get very mixed reactions.

Would love to hear what people stuck with after the honeymoon phase wore off.