(on things like flooring, cabinets, remodels, siding etc) I want to hear thoughts on going as cheap as possible, making the house look "high end" (possibly attracting higher end renters and charging more) or somewhere in the middle?

All have a generally cheap barrier to entry and have potential for cash flow.

And we know there is NOT rampant "bloat" in rent prices because if there were, it's also simple math that landlords would be rushing to create additional units to capitalize in that "pay day" right, because it's "bloated" rents, meaning over sized profit margins, which to be true would mean it's "cheap" to create new units vs the over sized profits it's producing.......

That's too cheap.

I also agree with the others that these owners sound like cheap-skate micro-managers.

Housing prices are cheap so everyone bought a house and turned it into an STR, and there’s way too many STR‘s.

Nothing here is cheap.

The leads that I get the rest of the month also try to negotiate to a price so cheap I would not consider it.

Even if demand increases any advantage to the side of demand will only ever be short lived, as there is endless cheap land out there for supply to quickly catch up and surpass that demand.

Most are looking for a reasonably priced place and, yes, some are looking to go very cheap.