Recommendations for budget options vs the alternatives

This came up at a meetup recently and the room was split, so curious what the broader community thinks. Spent the last few weekends digging into this and the deeper I go the more questions I have. The trade-offs here are not obvious to me and I keep flip-flopping.

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

Long-time lurker, first-time poster. Been thinking about this for a while and curious what the community thinks. Spent the last few weekends digging into this and the deeper I go the more questions I have.