I had a problem with a cheap thunderbolt-to-HDMI adapter that only did 4K@30Hz. MacOS scaling options were very limited (full 4k, HiDPI 1080p or scaled 1080p) and nothing looked great.

I tried the 27" 4k monitor at work with a thunderbolt to display port cable and all scaling options were then available to me. I'm running 1440p equivalent which seems to be about right for 27".

I chose a 4k for resolution flexibility and sharper text for code. I can fit more code on a 27" 1440p vs a 24" 1080p and text is sharper.

The only productivity I've lost has been appreciating how good everything looks. Well, that and trying to read about why I was missing the scaling options.

Hopefully someone in your situation will find this and learn the cable matters.

OK, well, it would make your article so much stronger if you wrote which scaled resolutions you tried and why "the results weren't great".