Spell Totem impossible to play

Not sure if you are aware but Spell Totems can also use Power charges and not only Endurance Charge (or even a mix between the two work). So the Redflare + Keystone to convert Power to Endurance is the "cheaper" version that doesn't need the Corrupted Redflare. They are currently 1 Vaal (aka. completely free).

The corrupted version your friend probably told you about is with a Vaal Cultivation Orb that remove the affix "Lose all Power Charges on reaching maximum Power Charges". With it you don't need the Keystone near the Monk area. They are currently 1 Divine.

As for Voll's Protector, it only work with Crit. Build. They are currently 1 Exalted (again, it's free at this point). That being said, a Crit. Build gear isn't cheap but the "guaranteed" Crit. from the Oracle ascendancy is a cheap work around.

I've also seen a tech to generate Endurance Charges without any particular Unique or Keystone involving Rage spending in Bear Form (with Walking Calamity) + Weapon Swap tech. Honestly, it look tedious so it's probably not for you.

I personally tested it myself and with those Unique tech, the charge generation isn't a issue at all except that it does cost you your Body Armour Slot. I still prefer Self Cast gameplay but from what I seen, Spell Totems are completely viable but aren't really Starter League Friendly.

Redflare with cultivated "Gain a Power Charge every Second if you haven't lost Power Charges Recently" starts at 2 divs (or you can just cultivate it yourself, its like 30% chance to get it, you dont even care which mod it replaces). If you run it with Resonance you are autogenerating 1 endurance charge per second virtualy forever. You cast for endurance charges and you never reach maximum power charges so you dont "lose power charges recently".