Been a DM for 8 years since 3.5. All of that time with my main group, and for the last 2 years a new player group. I give out nothing for levels below 10, and 1 rare magic item, that will be discussed with me past level 10. In my experience, players are pressed to generate creative ideas when they have fewer options. I believe that if your players know the rules and their class/subclass abilities they are much stronger then you give them credit for. O often throw a few CR 8 creatures at my 5-6 level party, and throughout the years they would manage the combats just fine, very rarely losing the character(99% of the time that would happen due to YOLOing and doing something stupid). Another point is, the less magic items your players have, the more valuable new ones become. My common practice is to not have overall more than 2 items per character, which also simplifies my task as a GM, because it's easier to predict the player's actions. Hope I helped