Show & tell: weekend plans worth the hype? [v4]

I tried three different approaches and none of them felt quite right.

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. Quick context: I am relatively new to this and trying to find my footing. For context, I am working with a pretty modest budget so high-end suggestions probably will not land.