Underrated budget options — am I overthinking this? [v3]

Looking for honest feedback, not validation. 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. 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.

Spent the last few weekends digging into this and the deeper I go the more questions I have.