Linear vs Switching on High-Dropuout & Low-Power application

Hey everyone, just a little while now I started my journey on hardware design and I've been doing simple boards and designs on freelancer, but recently some of my designs are pushing for production on more "complex" applications.

I'm about to start a new design requiring voltage and current regulation on the range of 0-10mA while accepting 32VAC input while having a lowest possible output of 5VDC. I've been evaluating between using a linear or a switching regulator for voltage regulation. Perks would be: no swithing noise or ripple in the mA range and easier EMC certification.

On the other hand my biggest concern with using a linear regulator is the efficiency, at 5VDC efficiency could be in the 20% range or less and I'm also concerned about thermals, although not so much as we're talking about 10mA consumption tops.

Right now I'm keen on the Linear regulator option but I was looking to get some advice from some of the more experienced users in here. Thanks in advance!