PSA: common pitfalls vs the alternatives [v4]

I tried three different approaches and none of them felt quite right. This came up at a meetup recently and the room was split, so curious what the broader community thinks. There is a lot of conflicting advice online and most of it is from 2019.

For context, I am working with a pretty modest budget so high-end suggestions probably will not land. Been thinking about this for a while and curious what the community thinks.