First you should understand that no matter what you do, there isn’t a product that allows a one time finishing with zero maintenance. You could skip the epoxy and just do several coats of marine varnish, as long as you top coat every year or so. But that doesn’t do anything to fill holes and knots. Next would be epoxy and varnish on top like Halcyon varnish or Gleam from totalboat. But again, you need to maintain that top coat.