All these tenant portals usually have 1 or 2 things that are annoying or unnecessary. 

Can anyone recommend a trustworthy inspector who is not going to overcharge or create unnecessary problems?

They say it takes forever to even get verified in the first place with all sorts of personal and financial information being requested that seem unnecessary.

After 10 years of hosting, I don't spend much time each month on my 4 STRs, but newbies who like to watch their cameras, obsess about a lot of (often unnecessary) details, and pile on a bunch of tech (channel managers, dynamic pricing tools, etc.) all at once will spend MUCH more in time, and that's worth something for sure.

For my small size it seemed unnecessary and I didn't see the benefit in the small companies for a small time guy like myself.What I do is I can collect rent through Venmo (free), I have a tennant application embedded into my website (cognito forms...also free) I screen tennants through mysmartmove.com (Transunion's company gives you credit report, background, criminal, eviction etc. and tennant pays for the screening so also free.) 

The first pillar is avoiding unnecessary and risky activities (don't drink and drive, insurance generally won’t cover your poor decisions) and take good care of your investments(maintain your property, etc) - these simple steps will help you prevent lawsuits before they even occur.

We feel that by having an smaller home we will be more connected and will have less unnecessary stuff.

In that case just defer doing unnecessary work to the unit. 

I see a lot of narrative around, "cut your costs, eliminate unnecessary expenses" etc.

A bank can't extort a tacked-on higher interest rate if a borrower won't agree to new terms...terms that would now require unnecessary documentation and hassle.Here's excerpts from their letter to commercial customers I got last week, on company letterhead.