1099 Tax experiences

I am in my first year of practice as a 1099. I pay taxes quarterly, not filling as an S corps under the recommendation of my accountant. I am currently putting aside roughly 1/3 of my income for taxes, and recently paid for the first time. I am not looking for shady advice, but my accountant made it sound like an s corps is not worth it until you are in the 450k range because the old deduction isnt available anymore and the payroll costs eats into any benefit. I feel fortunate to even be in the tax bracket Im in, but I recently found out most people in my group are filling as s corps and writing off all sorts of things at the same income, and their tax burden was half of mine. Is this normal? Does everybody have “a guy?” Am i missing something?