Hot take: late-night thoughts — what would you do?

Quick context: I am relatively new to this and trying to find my footing. Spent the last few weekends digging into this and the deeper I go the more questions I have.

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.

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. Looking for honest feedback, not validation.