Context: I-129F filed recently, NOA1 2023-01-27. Fiancee and I (the USC) have been engaged since November, only started dating in October 2022 after meeting in person for the first time while she was visiting the states (but knew each other as friends online for years beforehand). Held off on filing I129F until Jan this year so we could accumulate evidence of us spending time together in the US and her home country (total 3 months).
We thought about just getting married right away in my home state but opted not to because we felt that the timeline of us going from meeting in-person to marriage would have been a red flag and potentially made our lives harder with having to prove everything. However, now I'm looking at timelines and seeing that CR1 is faster and cheaper of a route and I feel like I made an error with going towards the wrong pathway. Am I correct in this assumption, or would the higher bar of proving legitimate marriage be higher than proving legitimate relationship and intent to marry have been too much of a hurdle?