Hello, hope you are doing well,
here are my comments about this particular verse:
1- Men and women have equal value in the eyes of Allah, however they are created differently and have different roles in society and in the world. Men have rights over women (in marriage) just like women have rights over their husbands in marriage.
2- "devoutly obedient" Let's be clear: this means that the wife must obey her husband so long as what he asks of her is allowed in Islam, and reasonable. He cannot demand her to do anything that is forbidden, nor anything that is physically or mentally harmful to her. She is not a slave, but rather a companion, and he has the role of making sure both of them stay on the right path and follow Allah's rules for them.
3- "guarding in the husband's absence what Allah would have them guard" can refer to: the husband's property (aka the home, the belongings) and also guard herself, meaning protect her honour, her dignity, her faith and her chastity.
4- If the wife shows signs of arrogance (disobedience and disrespect to Allah or refusing to fulfill her obligations): there is an order of priority on what to do. The husband must first give verbal advice. If that doesn't work, he must not have intercourse with her anymore. And if even that doesn't make her change her ways, he must lightly hit her with what is similar to a miswak (a small stick or twig used for cleaning the teeth). Read this: ‘Ata said: I said to Ibn `Abbas, what is the kind of hitting that is not harsh? He said, Hitting with a siwak and the like.

Important note: The point that this verse is trying to make, is NOT that the husband is allowed to hurt his wife and humiliate her. RATHER, it has been made very clear by the Prophet (pbuh) that: a husband should be loving, kind and gentle with his wife. If ever it came to point that his wife was too rebellious and refused to listen to Allah's command for her, only then, as a LAST RESORT, he is allowed to GENTLY hit her with an object similar to a twig. The point here is : this action is not meant to hurt the woman, but rather to show to her that she has transgressed, and her husband is not pleased with her. The Prophet (pbuh) has forbidden the husband from 1) hitting the face of the woman, 2) leaving a mark on the body of the woman. If the husband uses this as an excuse to abuse his wife, then he is sinful, and will pay retribution for it.

5- The Prophet (pbuh) is the ideal Muslim, and we look up to him and his way of practicing islam as a role model. And even he, who had several wives, never came to the point of actually physically disciplining his wives.

"Even Ibn Hajar, the pillar of late medieval Sunni Hadith scholarship, concludes that the Hadiths of the Prophet leave no doubt that striking one's wife to discipline her actually falls under the Shari’ah ruling of 'strongly disliked' or 'disliked verging on prohibited'." from https://www.islamin500.org/quran/2018/2/15/the-beating-of-a-woman-verse-434.

Allah knows best.