Thanks for the tips! That's pretty much exactly what my process looks like today if I want to figure out which variant is the most "popular." Most of the uncertainty is specifically about specialist sites like Digi-Key.

For example, the 74HC595 you linked is a super common shift register, but DK Canada has 88 listings for it. Some surface mount, some in different DIP configurations, and now I have to scour through and figure out the one variant that works for me.

Generalist sites like Amazon and AliExpress tend to mostly stock the variants that tinkerers/makers want when prototyping, which makes it easier for me to plop "74HC595" in the search bar and quickly get a sensible result, especially when sorting by amount sold.