If you are new to something and want to learn, seek resources and educate yourself with them. Learning takes time, and there are no shortcuts.
A hot DB should not run on HDDs. Slap some nvme storage into that server if you can. If you can’t, consider getting a new server and migrating to it.
SQL server can generate execution plans for you. For your queries, generate those, and see if you’re doing any operations that involve iterating the entire table. You should avoid scanning an entire table with a huge number of rows when possible, at least during requests.
If you want to do some kind of dupe protection, let the DB do it for you. Create an index and a table constraint on the relevant columns. If the data is too complex for that, find a way to do it, like generating and storing hashes, sorting lists/dicts, etc just so that the DB can do the work for you. The DB is better at enforcing constraints than you are (when it can do so).
For read-heavy workflows, consider whether caches or read replicas will benefit you.
And finally back to my first point: read. Learn. There are no shortcuts. You cannot get better at something if you don’t take the time to educate yourself on it.
When you tariff them by over 100% of their value, they tend to cost more to import.
My whole comment was on the tariffs specifically, and there is a 100% chance they affect sales in the US. Even with cost reductions in manufacturing over the total lifetime of the console, there’s no chance they cut costs enough to keep up with the tariffs, and there is no chance they planned for the tariffs to be this high in their planning.
Outside the US? These tariffs aren’t applied, but raising the prices globally limits the impact of them on one of their largest markets since they can amortize the cost across all their markets instead of just one.