How the latest update for newcomers [v1]

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

For context, I am working with a pretty modest budget so high-end suggestions probably will not land. Looking for honest feedback, not validation. Maybe an unpopular opinion but here we go.

The trade-offs here are not obvious to me and I keep flip-flopping. There is a lot of conflicting advice online and most of it is from 2019.