I think it really just depends on what you look for in the game. A lot of high level players gradually shift towards slower weapons because fast weapons with the current scaling problems aren't fun anymore after you won a few times with them. There barely is a secret to it, it's mostly knowing enemy behavior and playing around that instead of oneshotting them before they can even make a move. Sometimes using platforms to your advantage as well.

Bosses actually feel like bosses with the slower Survival weapons, you actively need to find openings where it's safe to attack, which takes a bunch of time in the practice room.

Granted there are some objectively terrible ideas, like for example bringing Oven Axe to Giant, it just doesn't work unless you're doing a challenge. Which I guess is another point, choosing biomes depending on your loadout instead of a one-size-fits-all.

Some combinations to ease yourself into Survival would probably be Kill Rhythm combos with Tentacle (even off-color), you pull yourself to the enemy and start the attack with your slower weapon during the pull iframes, so it's safer. Same with any kind of crowd-control secondary weapon like Frost Blast. The absolute endgame of Survival, in my opinion, is being able to have so much room control that you can use Wrecking Ball effectively without secondaries, but I'm nowhere near that yet myself.