I met a guy in Grand Rapids, MI at a real estate convention who lost $250M for not being properly protected with an LLC.

Poor people are overly protected from hardship.  

Hi BP, I just bought my first STR with two of my close friends/partners and I wanted to put a partnership agreement together to protect us in the case of someone wanting to exist or if an unforeseen event comes up.

The eviction moratorium is to protect people impacted by COVID-19 and unable to pay their rent.

You will spend more in insurance to protect the various entities, all of which would be sued in the event of an incident. 

They both are protecting you differently.

I am not a lawyer, but it's important to be aware of the fair housing laws in your state and the laws that protect applicants from being discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age and other protected identities.

My take on the matter, if you have less than $500K in equity you're trying to protect, the additional expenses are not worth the effort. 

The eviction moratorium only protects people that are unable to pay rent due to COVID-19 issues.

I will have quite a bit of personal assets to protect, hence why I am setting up the LLC.