Chemical etching since I have all the photo exposure equipment and chemicals, but in reality I'll just send away for them since they come fairly quickly, multi-layer and vias are possible and the boards don't need drilling.

Chemical etching is more accessible for sure, but every part of the process kind of sucks. Getting a solid toner transfer, preparing the bath, keeping the bath warm /moving, evenly washing the board (and stopping at the right time), cleaning up the mess, drilling all the through-holes, and optionally tinning... It's all labor-intensive and error-prone, and I'm honestly not sure if the results I got would ever have been good enough for modern digital circuits. Ymmv.

(If I did go back to chemical etching, I sure as hell wouldn't use ferric chloride. I'd try one of those reagents you can actually see through!)

This isn't the kind of answer you wanted, but jlcpbc is beyond cheap if you have the budget for time. I'm getting 5 boards for less than $5 USD (coupon applied that lowered it by maybe $5). It's made it so that I don't have to think about chemicals for etching anymore. (I've done it a little but nothing recently)

I have a cheapshit cnc mill I use for PCB milling. It does the job and once you get used to it, it goes fairly quick. Challenge is getting the board to stay flat, because if the tape lets go, now your bit is digging for China, and no board starts flat. Doing a height probe is very necessary. What I like is that I just swap the bit and run it through the drill map, then I'm ready to either drive rivets or poke a piece of wire through for my vias.

But for getting a quick prototype with vias and SMD pads, I don't think etching compares. I'll cut boards until I'm happy with the design then send it off to JLCPCB for a production board. I'm not precious about the dust, I run it out in the shop along with every other toxic gas and dust I deal with as a farmer. I guess you could run it outside if you were concerned.

I think laser engraving is probably the best way to make them at home, although just buying from a pcb service like jlc is the best option if you can wait.