I am new to concealed carry and keep seeing people focus heavily on gear. Is better equipment really that important for a beginner, or should training and fundamentals come first?
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Fundamentals, belt, holster, and ammunition.
All the gear in the world is meaningless if you do not have fundamentals.
Hth
@Jerzees your turn 
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Fundamentals come first…with proper gear. 
Every person has different learning process, different thinking and financial resources.
You can buy cheap gear and then find out during training what has to be changed or you can take you time, do research, buy gear that has great reviews and hopefully you won’t need to change anything again.
I compare this to purchasing a new car: do I need something that only drives or do I need a quality car with all the accessories and features that make my driving comfortable and safe?
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Fundamentals first.
As far as gear goes, you won’t really know what you need until you know your need it.
Chasing magic bullets is a waste of your $$ that could be better spent on training, ammo, range time etc…
Don’t ask how I know this
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Echoing the above! Gear will come once you’ve determined what you need vs. want. But in the meantime, training is great and will give you the foundation to further train upon.
The 3 A’s of gun ownership. Ammo, Ammo, Ammo. You can never have enough.
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Reliable gun, good holster and train. KISS principle.
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Welcome to the family brother @Ryan256 and you are in the right place at the right time.
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This 
and practice restraint before one ends up with non-essential stuff, like a drawer full of holsters.
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Isnt this a rite of passage for all gun owners? 
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Training first once you are comfortable shooting and ALL shots are on target, decide how you want to carry IWB or OWB then buy a decent holster. You will end up like the rest of us and end up with holsters in a box until you find the right one then you will replace it.
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The truths about concealed carry are that you need comfortable equipment, you need to train with that equipment, and the only way to find out if the equipment will work comfortably for you is to use it and train with it.
Logic error: Illogical circular argument detected.
So, jump into this circular path at any point you think makes sense, and start your upgrade/evaluate/train evolution. You will end up with a box full of holsters, probably multiple guns, and probably more knowledge about the human anatomy than you were expecting.
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That will NEVER happen! Take your lies elsewhere! 
Edit:
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Another way of looking at this is what can you afford? And what can’t you afford?
Your budget is going to dictate quite a bit when it comes to shooting.
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Over centuries, while most English words adopted an “-s” for plurals, frequently hunted and herded animals like deer and sheep kept their ancient zero-plural structure.
Mr. Chairman, I move to make the word “gun” adopt a zero-plural structure. Further, that a gun owner must own more than one gun before they can refer to themselves as gun owners.
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Very true, Training first and gear second. Its through training that you develop what is comfortable for you. Everyone has an opinion about "the best gun to shoot/carry. Don’t take the word of another as absolute truth for you. Experiment and understand some pistols are better for you than others. Over the course of time you may find yourself owning different pistols. The one you are comfortable with now, may not be comfortable for you in later years. You definitely want the pistol that fits you with some of its features specifically meant for you.
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Safe gear and fundamentals are both minimum requirements.
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I think if you have a good pistol and a good shooting it training is the way to go.
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@Ryan256 Welcome to the community! Train, train, train, and learn fundamentals, even take a beginner gun/fundamentals class.
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training, training, training, safety, and fundamentals, then equipment, holster, belt and such
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