Why first impressions — what would you do? [v3]

Looking for honest feedback, not validation. Posting this here because the relevant subreddit has gotten too noisy lately. 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.

For context, I am working with a pretty modest budget so high-end suggestions probably will not land.