Yup. I tossed the soldering iron holder & have never used the sponges. I do use the solder dispenser because I have rolls of solder from my old workplace that closed.
I don't have it attached to the base though. I got in on the $30 deal, so it wasn't like I'd saved anything by not getting the whole setup.
There is the Panavise 333 which is basically the setup linked earlier in this thread without the extraneous attachments.
I'm a bit mixed on solder dispensers. They're nice to have, but I've never had too much trouble just setting the spool on end on the bench and pulling on it, manually rotating when necessary. Then again, I'm normally doing super small SMT work, not bulk through-hole, so I don't use that much solder.
I don't know how people can solder without a sponge. The metal brush tip cleaners can damage high-end tips that have alloy coatings designed to easily take solder and not require complex tinning procedures like the crappy Radio Shack tips. You usually need something ot remove excess solder and flux that accumulates on the tip. It does depend somewhat on what you're doing. Again, small SMT rework is very different than bulk through-hole assembly.
For flux, I have liquid and paste rosin flux on the bench. I mostly use the liquid. I use a small paintbrush to put it where I want and dispense out of a small travel make-up container that you can easily get in a "TSA approved" kit. I use a similar container with anhydrous isopropyl alcohol for cleaning the brush and removing flux residue from the PCB. Q-tips are handy but can leave lint. Kimwipes don't do that but are less convenient and much more expensive.
I have a couple of dedicated vacuum desoldering stations. They both pretty much suck or rather don't. I mostly just use braid and a "soldapult" manual vacuum tool.
I have a standard vinyl ESD mat as my work surface. It is definitely getting torn up over the years, but that's expected. I would love to get a laminate top with ESD foil underneath. You can build this yourself if you want to.
For parts dishes/trays, I just use stainless steel pet bowls. They're readily available and cheap. If you get ones without rubber rims and have a static free worktop, the dish itself should also remain pretty much static free.