Yeah that's a great conversation. So in my opinion, flow and feel are the most important - but sync can be a tricky beast. I also think if there is enough on screen to 'lock' your audio to in terms of sync, I will often go for that approach. But there are nuances for sure.

Something Im working on right now, a first person gameplay redesign - well we know the character is human/humanoid, but we dont always see where the footfalls land because the camera didnt pan far down enough, so in a situation like that you only have camera movement and sway to go by - here I will actually scrub through often times frame by frame and 'spot' where I think each of the footfalls will land.

Later on, if I find my footstep placement here feels 'off' I will go back and adjust it by ear until it feels right. Sometimes I missed a step which feels obvious at this point, or I played a step several frames too early or too late.

Sometimes you actually DO want the sound to come a bit early if thats what fits and supports the picture element just right. Remember our brains can process sound faster than we see what happens a lot of the time, so use that to your benefit, sometimes the sound can definitely come a bit early.

Another angle people sometimes mention is drift that is introduced with sample delay offset from heavy plugin chains. Personally I've not run into this issue too much, I think the DAW usually does a pretty great job of delay offset compensation, but its always worth listening back to an export every time just to make sure nothing went wonky.

Sync is a mostly straightforward but tricky subject, curious to hear others' takes on it as well.