You're in the minority and that minority is shrinking. APFS isn't being designed for HDDs, support for them is more of a concession than a concern, as the futur

You're in the minority and that minority is shrinking. APFS isn't being designed for HDDs, support for them is more of a concession than a concern, as the future is, clearly, SSD or better. SSDs already have higher capacities than any HDD, and soon their price will drop down to parity and then below as SSD gains continue to outpace those in the HDD domain. We're in the transition period here where, for the next few years, SSD space will still be at a premium vs. HDD. Beyond that the SSD will offer vastly more storage than you could possibly need at a cost you can afford. In the interim if compression gives you an extra GB of space then make a compressed volume and mount that. It's fully under your control.