Knowing what we now know, if you were starting out again today and intent
on a completely homebrewed station, what path should we follow?

Perhaps a FET GDO, followed by (super) regen on 472kHz, to be
adapted to be the detector stage of a 455kHz IF of a 30M RX,
followed shortly by a 30m CW TX?

Personally, I'd be against the use of DSP and PCs, primarily because such
equipment embodies many millions of transistors when all the joy,
surely, comes from achievement with simple beginnings?