Worst edge cases on a tight budget

Posting this here because the relevant subreddit has gotten too noisy lately. Quick context: I am relatively new to this and trying to find my footing. I tried three different approaches and none of them felt quite right.

Been thinking about this for a while and curious what the community thinks. There is a lot of conflicting advice online and most of it is from 2019. Quick context: I am relatively new to this and trying to find my footing.

Not sure if this is the right place to ask, mods please remove if it is not. Long-time lurker, first-time poster. For context, I am working with a pretty modest budget so high-end suggestions probably will not land.