Weekly discussion: first impressions — am I overthinking this? [v2]

There is a lot of conflicting advice online and most of it is from 2019. This came up at a meetup recently and the room was split, so curious what the broader community thinks.

Long-time lurker, first-time poster. Looking for honest feedback, not validation. Quick context: I am relatively new to this and trying to find my footing.

I want to write something more comprehensive about this later but starting with a quick post to gather thoughts. Not sure if this is the right place to ask, mods please remove if it is not.