I have had the first shot of a burst turn out well, but it is not something that happens frequently enough to make me avoid bursts.

I used to shoot events for PR for an organization I belonged to. There were frequently shots of someone at a podium, speaking. There were two guys, high up in the organization, so they were frequent subjects, who would contort their faces into the most amazing expressions while speaking. Their face could do that in the few milliseconds between deciding to take the shot and the shutter opening. The ONLY way to get a good shot of either of these guys was spray and pray. Many times I would take 3-5 shot bursts, winding up with 50-100 shots to choose from.

Another thing I encountered was when doing group shots with flash. Many times I would encounter a blinker. There are two kinds of blinkers: most frequently someone will blink in response to the preflash and their eyes are closed when the shot happens. Another kind has a delayed response, so they will blink after the shot. The first kind is addressed by raising the ISO to the point where it doesn't affect the IQ too much but allows the flash to loaf so it doesn't dump all the charge in one flash. Then you can use a high speed burst and get 3-4 shots of the group on a single charge. The first kind of blinker usually recovers by the third shot and you can get their eyes open. If you have both kinds of blinkers in a group, it's tough to get everyone with their eyes open in one burst. If that happens, the only remedies I have are (1) take longer bursts; (2) swap heads in Photoshop. Since you took a fast burst the background doesn't change much so it's really easy to swap heads without worrying much about the background changing.

Sometimes multiple shots are necessary.

This is digital. The shots are essentially free. The cost of a shot is (1) amortization of the capital costs of the equipment (so the more you use it, the less the shots cost); (2) your time in selecting the shots. The second cost is the most important one. However, multiple shots provide some insurance for those shots that are nonrepeatable.

I'd always wanted to see Glade Creek Grist Mill and had planned to go there our first morning in Hico (nearest base for exploring the triangle between Hawksnest, Summersville, and New River Gorge). As it turned out, though, we arrived there mid-afternoon on our way up from Monroe County. At first we thought we'd just go check it out, but the clouds provided such soft lighting that we went ahead and shot the works. Before calling it a day, we drove down to the Tunney Hunsaker bridge that crosses the New River and shot up to "The" Bridge just as the light was disappearing behind the mountain.

I just spent some time on XRite’s page, and frankly (at least to me) their product offerings are now a bit confusing, especially when you add in their distributor Calibrate where their link takes you if you follow their recommendation for a replacement for the Smile product.

Personally, I have used DataColor’s Spyder for many years and find it and the included SW very easy to use. I’d suggest something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Datacolor-SpyderX-Pro-Calibration-Photographers/dp/B07M6KPJ9K/ref=sr_1_2?gclid=Cj0KCQjwnP-ZBhDiARIsAH3FSRcsngJ6k2LwNMTDurfb1JSJi_xLOV2vgVc3Iv2_QdSuFhmIiIgJq90aArS7EALw_wcB&hvadid=557070512073&hvdev=t&hvlocphy=9009733&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=7884135928683910605&hvtargid=kwd-338080258227&hydadcr=18502_13444477&keywords=colormunki+display+calibration&qid=1665201742&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIxLjQ0IiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&sr=8-2&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.18ed3cb5-28d5-4975-8bc7-93deae8f9840

After you do the calibration, download the correct ICC profile for your printer and paper (from your paper manufacturer) and then enable soft proofing using that profile in your post processing application. Do those things, and your prints should look very close to your display in terms of brightness and color. Of course, there are others variables - your ink, paper, printer settings, etc, but calibration, the correct ICC profile and soft proofing are a good beginning.