I have Rapid Photo Downloader put everything in a single folder img/YYYY/MMDD_jobcode with filenames as YYYYMMDDHHMM_YY_XXX where YY is the short camera model name and XXX is a part of the original file number just to ensure uniqueness. I would have liked shorter file names but find the above works well.
Raw files, sooc jpeg’s, video all goes into one place. When I shoot essentially the same thing over several days I get several daily folders with the same jobcode.
Exports end up in subfolders to the above most often web and export. The latter being full size. If I explore multiple edits I create differently named subfolders as necessary. Say BW for black and white or warmer for a different whitebalance etc
I previously (many years ago) used a top level directory for final images as you describe. I realised it’s hugely beneficial for me to have a tree where the outer leafs are final products or experiments and where files, copies and different edits from the same occasion are close to each other.
Images published or sent out get copied out of the img folder to a sort of admin part of my harddrives. This is mostly to document what went out when but also to make a final selection. I find I need to collect it all in one place before deciding on the final set. I could use collections in Geeqie or similar tools in other software but find it easier to copy them over. My backup system deduplicates so identical copies don’t increase my backup size. I do sometimes add or remove metadata from the files in this “out” folder.