Recommendations for workflow tweaks on a tight budget [v4]

Looking for honest feedback, not validation. The trade-offs here are not obvious to me and I keep flip-flopping. Been thinking about this for a while and curious what the community thinks.

Been thinking about this for a while and curious what the community thinks. This came up at a meetup recently and the room was split, so curious what the broader community thinks. Posting this here because the relevant subreddit has gotten too noisy lately.