I have found that the most powerful tool for getting exactly what I want on screen is CSS. I start with an old-fashioned theme that gives me a layout close to what I want, quickly take advantage of whatever settings it provides, and then take control via CSS. Inserting CSS either via the bottom of the Customizer sidebar or a CSS plugin. I usually start with one of the 20xx themes because they usually do a very good job of defining classes for every item on screen. The buggy, over-complicated, always-changing block editor is a waste of my time, time better spent developing content.