Worst workflow tweaks that changed my mind [v2]

Quick context: I am relatively new to this and trying to find my footing. For context, I am working with a pretty modest budget so high-end suggestions probably will not land. 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. Posting this here because the relevant subreddit has gotten too noisy lately. Maybe an unpopular opinion but here we go.

There is a lot of conflicting advice online and most of it is from 2019. Not sure if this is the right place to ask, mods please remove if it is not.