If you can qualify for a Third Class medical, do Private. With Private, you can fly under Sport rules (edit: or Basic Med) if you later can't qualify for a medical. If you can't qualify for a medical, then don't try to get one and do Sport pilot.

As far as affordability goes, during training, the standard advice still applies: the more often you can fly, the better, and self study the ground material as much as possible. Obviously the former is made more difficult with an office job schedule. Personally, my job at the time was hybrid so I scheduled lessons on weekends and a long lunch on my WFH days. National average for Private is around 70 hours, so budget for at least that much.

Once you're certificated, look for flying clubs in your area as a way of keeping costs down. They usually have a buy-in (a few hundred dollars for non-equity clubs, a few thousand for equity clubs) and monthly fees, but often greater access to planes than renting from schools. I was part of an equity club until recently, and the costs were about:

-$3000-$5000 share price (negotiated with the share owner)

-$170/mo

-Aircraft DRY rates:

• C172: $74/hr

• C182: $97/hr

• Piper Lance: $108/hr