I've been shooting professionally and teaching photography for over 30 years. You've received some good advice here. The decision regarding what's best to buy is certainly subjective. Ask 10 peeps you'll probably get 10 answers. One things certain it all depends on what you what to use it for and how critical you are evaluating thew results. DSLR provides greatest flexibility and highest potential quality. Yes you have to learn how to use it but that goes for anything worthwhile. You had to learn to drive your car and manages that, more or less. Smaller cameras are a tradeoff quality/flexibility for portability and convenience.
Taking a photo class before you buy might be a great way to learn what features are important to you.
There are great online resources to learn and compare eg:
www.dpreview.com and
www.luminous- landscape.com and others.
If you are in CT and near Far Fetched County I teach class at NCC (first class tonight) in in my studio (starts next week). Otherwise ck out a Community College in your area.
If you go for DSLR I would strongly recommend Canon or Nikon as they are the leaders in the industry, offer the greatest variety of lenses and command highest resale when you want to upgrade.
Don't get sucked into the megapixel marketing scam....# of megapix is overstated and misleading rather its the quality of the pixels, sensor size and quality that are more important. I show students a comparison of12x18 prints made with a 4MP and 12MP. Most cant tell the difference and most would not need to enlarge prints much larger if at all.
If budget permits don't buy kit rather buy body you want with the best lenses you can afford. You'll keep lenses a lot longer than the body since camera body technology improves at a faster rate by far.
You should protect lenses but UV, mentioned above, is a carry over from film and not necessary with DSLR that correct UV digitally with WB. NC or neutral color filter is what you want....it's basically coated optical quality glass.
A "good tripod and head" is a must for landscape photography....caution "good" is not cheap. A cheap tripod is not worth $hi* IMO cause it will loosen up and cease to function with modest use. Regardless of what you spend get one where the head can be removed from the legs for relacement due to breakage or upgrade. Also getting correct tripod height is important. Get one that places viewfinder at eye level with out raising center column or bending over...your back will thank you.
Your choice of remote exposure release will depend on your camera selection. I prefer a simple cable release (w/o timer) you may consider timer depending on what you want to accomplish. Note some cameras won't accept cable release and use IR trigger instead.
Consider full frame sensor which has quality advantages for landscape photographers and those needing the option of large print. Both Canon and Nikon have good choices in the prosumer range.
Also full frame cameras eliminates crop factor which is important consideration in lens selection for landscapes which wide angles dominate.
I also get great use out of my iPhone 6+ it just fulfills a different purpose. And I am severely limited in enlargement size...looks cool on the LCD or online though.