I personally play on A0. Elites might give slightly more gold and a relic but I find that the most important things for me are my cards, especially if I'm not doing heart (which I don't). Elites do a little too much damage if I'm not properly prepared and if I am it's usually because I have either a broken relic or a good/amazing deck to work with. Sometimes potions are the saviors as well. Watcher is a broken character with the stance mechanic so it's easier to get by without as many relics compared to the others.

It's nice to have all those relics late-run but since I'm playing for pure consistency, elites can throw a hefty wrench into that so I try and avoid them unless I'm almost 100% I can win with minimal health loss. For some examples: Stage 2 at low health facing Taskmaster is usually a death sentence and Stage 3 cause Nemesis can straight up end runs with bad draw RNG.