Looking for workflow tweaks — am I overthinking this? [v4]

Quick context: I am relatively new to this and trying to find my footing. Posting this here because the relevant subreddit has gotten too noisy lately.

There is a lot of conflicting advice online and most of it is from 2019. Posting this here because the relevant subreddit has gotten too noisy lately. Been thinking about this for a while and curious what the community thinks.

Maybe an unpopular opinion but here we go. This came up at a meetup recently and the room was split, so curious what the broader community thinks.