Sand substrate. To dirt or not to dirt, that is the question

Hey guys. So a little background. While I am still a total noob in the hobby, I have done dirted before, so I have some idea the kind of crazy stuff that can happen. I have tried capping MG organic potting mix with petstore gravels and capping with Mr Aqua aquarium soil in low tech nano tanks, and they both give me fairly good results. I want to try something new this time because I had so much trouble making small stemmed plants like s repens and dwarf hairgrass thrive in my gravel + dirt tank (I think the gravels are too big so they have a hard time rooting. They survive but they don't do much else), and while the mr aqua capped dirt tank give me pretty good growth, it was kind of too messy since the mr aqua soil is very light and requires tremendous patience to set up the tank, plant stuff in, and wait for the ammonia to settle down, especially when there is dirt right underneath it. So I don't think I want to go through that again (also Mr Aqua soil is so expensive, I only got a tiny 1L bag to do a 1 gallon nano).

I am currently planning to start a Fluval Spec V 5 gallon. After some research I think I am going to go with an inert sand substrate, since the general consensus is that it's much easier to plant stemmed plants in sand compared to other stuff like Eco-complete and Flourite, both of which are fairly inert anyway. So I would probably get those petco imagitarium black sand, since it's not a very big tank anyway so I don't want a 50 lb bag for BDBS.

Now the biggest question I have is if I should dirt it, or should I do root tabs only like osmocote plus. I have never done sand before, and definitely have never done any planted tank that did not involve dirt. I know maybe it's a bit weird to start the hobby from dirt since that's like the messiest option, but I really only got into planted tank after seeing people talk about dirted tanks and how lush and healthy their plants look for a very low maintenance and low cost setup.

I am hoping for some insights with doing sand with or without dirt underneath. And this is for a low tech setup. Probably just stock Fluval Spec V light, no CO2, weekly Leaf Zone + Seachem Flourish for water column, maybe a few fish and/or a betta in the future after the tank is cycled. And I am hoping for a low tech slow growth tank with some rotala, ludwigia, anacharis, s. repns, dwarf hair grass, java moss, anubias, and probably a little bit of duckweed for good luck (yeah, they go pretty crazy but at least they keep my water pretty clean!). What my expectation should be for either sand+dirt or sand+root tab setups, and how would they significantly differ from say... doing a gravel capped dirt tank? Is sand capped dirt really less messy compared to gravel capped dirt? Is the fish poop and mums etc. much more noticeable on sand vs on gravel? Is there a significant difference in growth between sand+dirt vs sand+osmocote vs gravel+dirt ? Anything else I should watch out for? Any input is welcomed.

Thanks!