Should community norms vs the alternatives [v2]

The trade-offs here are not obvious to me and I keep flip-flopping.

Mostly thinking out loud — feel free to push back hard.

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. Quick context: I am relatively new to this and trying to find my footing.