OP, thank you for your invaluable experience.
I’m a seasoned UE dev and I use HLODs on all projects. Right now, I’m trying to wrap my head around HLOD in World Partition and it’s INFURIATING. As of UE5.5 the system is still bare-bones, no UI, no decent visual feedback for previewing. And the official guide is a spit in the face in terms of usefulness.
Be sure, what you wrote is super valuable and every sentence I will take into careful consideration. God bless you!