If even scholars and people who are considered experts debate what is halal, makruh, haram, etc., then how are we as regular people supposed to figure out what is encouraged vs not?

Excluding things that the Quran explicitly says to do or not to do of course. But do people tend to be on the side of caution and not do a lot of things not explicitly prohibited, or do they figure that Allah wanted us to know something, then it would’ve been included in the Quran? And also I know that even if there is a Quran verse saying to do or not do something, some people will bring up historical context and how it’s only applicable to certain circumstances or was specifically about the connotations/immorality of certain behaviors in context, not about that specific behavior being the problem exactly