Fair enough. I've taken digital logic classes etc. in college but when it comes to practical circuit design I'm mostly self-taught, having worked my way up from all through-hole components with ATmega and similar devices to dipping my toe in the SMD waters with larger TQFP parts to now doing a few designs with the RP2040. I've tried to educate myself on best practices and follow recommended layouts and things like that where possible, to try to learn to do things the "right way" - but I definitely don't have enough experience to know when the rules of thumb can be broken or not.
It's good to know that the "closeness" requirement of decoupling caps is perhaps not as important as I had believed.