Weekend project, my back hurts already. Though to be honest it always hurts.
Took a bit longer than expected and had to break out the router to fix the edges but desk top came out OK.
If only cables weren’t a thing.
Headphone setup ended up 👍.

The plan has been to get a heavy duty VESA mount and put up my oldish 49” monitor. Plan worked but…

... I forgot two things: 1. How ridiculously large this monitor is. 2. How terrible VA looks on Mac.

I really don't want to spend the $$$ on another 38" monitor but seems like the least worst choice (don't want to spend $2k on the Dell 6k either).

Resisting... If Dell's refurb warranty wasn't so terrible I'd have a lot more trouble.
Another option. 1/2 the price of the Dell and more usable screen space. But, in my experience, 140PPI is a bit of an uncanny valley resolution wise and deco gear isn't the first name I think of when thinking of quality monitors.
https://www.amazon.com/Deco-Gear-Ultrawide-Monitor-5120x2160/dp/B0CLHDCHLC
Amazon.com

I ended up ordering the Dell refurb. It came today but the built in web camera got smashed up in shipping (though seems to be functional). Tried to do a replacement but they said it was out of stock (which I don't thinks is true), so back it goes.

Really disappointed, I'd consider re-ordering but the packing job was so bad I'm not willing to risk it, no idea why they didn't send it in with the original box.

The monitor itself is super nice, like an extra large iMac 27" 5k, it’s super sharp.

Given the Dell 6k refurb failure I went back to the drawing board. 27" 4k + 1080p 15" portable monitor. I doubt this will last, but having a hard time coming up with anything else to try.
@paul Everything you’re going through here is precisely why I haven’t been willing to move on past my maxed out last generation 27 inch iMac. This display is still amazing, and there’s hardly been any competition, even after all these years.
@travisbell But now you are stuck w/ Ventura & can’t upgrade MacOS, right? Or is the a way to move forward on my 27” Intel?
@jfharrison Sonoma still supports Intel and the 27 inch iMacs: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/105113
macOS Sonoma is compatible with these computers - Apple Support (CA)

You can install macOS Sonoma on any of these Mac models. 

Apple Support
@travisbell Sorry, I’m a 2017, not 2019. I’m locked in to Ventura or hw upgrade. My screen is nice, I can’t bring myself to toss it out and my understanding is it cannot easily be repurposed to use on a newer system.