I heard the golden rule is...

"Caulk and paint will make you a saint"

If it isn't a competition, cheating is just increased efficiency!

There's a limit - the house will settle and you'll be caulking later.

You get what you pay for in most cases.

Something to remember with caulk is that you need a certain bead width to accommodate a certain amount of movement. Wood expands and contracts seasonally. A 1mm wide bead of caulk would need to stretch 100% to stay intact if the 1mm gap becomes 2mm in winter when the wood dries out. Most caulks can’t do that, and will crack. A 3mm or 1/8” wide bead of caulk is more likely to be able to stretch by 1mm up to 4mm without breaking. So in a serious way, caulk is better at filling BIG gaps, and a poor solution when the fit is quite close. Check the expansion rating for the product, and think about how that relates to the movement of the gap you’re trying to fill.

That’s the difference between carpenters and cabinet makers. You would think they are the same but scale and detail are the difference.

Cabinet makers do amazing perfect finish work, but it would take them 2 years to frame a house.

Try your best fill the rest

Carpenter's Creed: "Ah, just leave it for the painters."

Caulk and paint, makes a carpenter what he ain't.

Your golden rule hits so much closer to the truth. Upvote dispensed.

You win some, you caulk some

caulk and fill after the wood is primed otherwise it wont stick well and will fall out after about a yeat

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Builder here, that has never worked fir me, damned painters...

It kind of depends, but if you think you are going to get away with something clever, you probably won't, but whatever you do, don't tell anybody and they might never notice.