I am no where near either of your levels, so take with a grain of salt. I loved 5x5 training to start my lifting journey, but I started grinding and maybe cheating a bit on the last few reps to advance. Then I went to max effort singles followed by backoffs 5x5 and that forced me to confront my form issues as I simply could not advance at my absolute max without better form, but it ground me down mentally always being at the very edge, and I train alone so that didn't help either.
Now I'm running 5-3-1 and I love it. I thought I'd hate hitting rep PRs, as who cares unless it's a max rep, but I don't. I can feel myself getting stronger and more conditioning with better form all the way through.
However, once I get closer to a competition, I will go back to singles and backoffs as nothing sharpens the focus better than that did. I feel like this is the baseline routine to increase my strength regularly with good form and fairly safely. But regular singles amps up the body for high intensity work heading into a competion.
Just thinking out loud. I'm hoping to be jwood one day.
