Elementor or a custom theme: pick on purpose

Elementor is the right tool when you will edit pages yourself and the layout will keep changing. A custom theme is the right tool when the design is stable and you care about how little CSS loads on a product page.

I use both. The mistake is mixing them without a rule: Elementor for marketing pages, templates for shop archives, and a child theme for the chrome you do not want a client to accidentally delete.

A simple rule

If the homepage will be rebuilt every campaign, use a builder. If the product card will be rendered 40 times on a category, keep that in PHP templates. Your Core Web Vitals will thank you, and so will whoever inherits the site.