You should've saved Heroes vs Villains until you'd watch a few prior seasons like 7, 12, 17 etc because, even though it's great, it does have spoilers of previous seasons and it's more enjoyable when you've watched the contestants on their original seasons first and then see them come back.
When I first did a Survivor rewatch I started from 1 and went all the way to 27 and caught up just in time for the start of 28

I definitely don't regret doing that, it made it much more enjoyable imo.
I might rewatch Survivor China before Second Chances airs because I'm excited to see Queen Peih-Gee again <3