Should I keep it plugged-in all the time, is that OK?
This is where you'll get various replies stating that Apple knows what's best when it comes to their native battery optimisation tech. I'd normally agree but personally didn't have a good run using it:
My M2 MBP was mostly tethered to power and charged to 80% most of the time but shot to 100% now and then. It was just plainly inconsistent even though my routine was predictable and solid. Battery health also started to decline somewhat too quickly.
My iP 13 Mini. The battery optimisation worked flawlessly 6 weeks after purchase (once it learned my location based charging habits). 5W charging overnight at home to 80%, then completed to 100 % couple of hrs prior to my wake up alarm. Wonderful, loved it. Worked for 6 months but after that it didn't anymore, no matter how often I reset the history and tried to force it to relearn. Perhaps resetting to factory might have fixed things but at stage had already lost 10%+ health and plainly didn't care anymore.
Folks might say here batteries are purely a consumable item, stop stressing and move on. Replace when needed and I get that. I however keep my devices for an extremely long time and do try to adopt good charging habits from the get go. Nothing wrong with that as long as your charging schedule doesn't negatively impede your life in any way.
Fast forward to a liquid spill I had with the M2 and the battery (and 95% of the hardware) was changed, so I had another chance with the battery, the charging and taking some control. Actually, I had purchased AlDente when originally buying the M2 but chickened out installing it as it seemed so invasive taking over the SMC. So even after the new battery it took me a while to run it.
So to your question. I personally feel very happy now to be constantly tethered using this 3rd party App and there's quite a lot more control and optimisation within. Just make sure you get the paid Pro version for a very small one time fee. I researched this very thing to a stand still but now wished I had set this up right from the start. So using this set-up I can comfortably say that it's more than ok to be tethered all the time to power. The transparency of the graphical interface is also nice, showing when the charger goes to the internal battery or bypasses it.
As a side note, Apple's battery health still shows 100%, whereas both Coconut and AlDente agree that it's actually 97%. I've no idea why or how this can be and exactly who is over or underestimating in this case.
