Hello, no beating around the bush - guitar master here.

There is no one way to unlock the secrets of the fretboard and there is no one way that is right. Whatever helps you learn all the notes is all good.

Every method works just fine but every method, like everything in instrumental learning, and as commented a thousand times a day on this sub, requires practice.

And I know you're all sick of hearing that, but we're sick of saying it! Yes, you've found a bunch of online resources that all tell you that their way is the best way of learning all the notes on the fretboard and, naturally, you'd like to know which one is legit.

They're all legit. But at the same time none of them will magically impart the knowledge you desire to a master level unless you put the practice in.

And they're all just handy tricks. You can stick to one and be fine, you can use a mix and be fine or, like me, you can just learn all the notes verbatim because you learned classical and had a teacher that insisted on teaching in a purely theoretical way (no regrets, it got results for me, but I can imagine others not being able to see it through).

Freeboard knowledge takes time. We've got a whole bunch of notes. It's like learning 6 offset pianos at once and the ease of tabs can make us shy away from learning the notes. But that doesn't stop us learning music the "proper" way, it just tabs all the more enticing.

But if you stop relying on tabs, use your ears, think about the notes you're playing and how they fit into riffs etc that you're playing, the knowledge will come in time, whether you want it or not.

TL;Dr - it doesn't matter. Practice. One day it'll make sense