PSA: workflow tweaks vs the alternatives [v2]

Not sure if this is the right place to ask, mods please remove if it is not.

For context, I am working with a pretty modest budget so high-end suggestions probably will not land. Spent the last few weekends digging into this and the deeper I go the more questions I have. 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. Not sure if this is the right place to ask, mods please remove if it is not. There is a lot of conflicting advice online and most of it is from 2019.