My mom walks for 30 minutes a day, while I run rather fast for the same time. I always tell her she should run a little, but she doesn't like to sweat.
Granted, 30 minutes of walking is 100x better than sitting around, and running is ~5x better. I'll give her that. Lessening returns and all.
My mental model is "easy" activity is sufficient to not die when you're 60, and more intense stuff will make you thrive into your 80s.
I.e. walking has no excuse barring disability. Running I recommend, but not as strongly.
Put another way, I will endlessly nag my parents on walking. Running or jogging I merely suggest, given various costs like you point out.
My experience here is that it is more subtle. "Better off" depends on your goals.
For losing weight, one or two sessions of 75-90 minutes or longer per week seem to have much more effect for me than 30 minutes every day. (Borne out over years of trying different things; I'm in my 50s.) For increasing my VO2max, 25-30 minutes of aerobic exercise every single day for weeks on end worked well, but it was hard to maintain that discipline long term. (I was very surprised at the effect of every day, as opposed to, say, 4-5 days a week. It seemed like I was getting a lot more than an extra 50-75% benefit.)
I exercise daily because otherwise it's too easy to start skipping. This way you know that you have to exercise and have to plan for it. (I have a home gym, which I built, lucky enough, pre-covid)