Overrated workflow tweaks [v3]

I tried three different approaches and none of them felt quite right. Not sure if this is the right place to ask, mods please remove if it is not. Long-time lurker, first-time poster.

The trade-offs here are not obvious to me and I keep flip-flopping. Maybe an unpopular opinion but here we go. I want to write something more comprehensive about this later but starting with a quick post to gather thoughts.