We mainly wanted parquet. Not too light, not too dark, rather timeless. Then a few were shown to us, and we simply took the one that could be sanded the most. Then the question arose: lacquered or oiled. On advice, we took lacquered. That turned out to be a mistake. The installation company botched it.
We were at the studio for tiles. Good advice. They looked at the floor plans of the rooms, asked about wall colors and furnishings. The advice was good. Even though some compromises had to be made. Afterwards, 3D graphics of the rooms with the tiles came.
In my opinion, the topic of "sanding" is often overrated. We once had a solid wood floor sanded, or rather, I did part of it myself. The self-attempt failed because the big machine is a devilish device. The rest was done by the professional... well... you can't really avoid dents, and at transitions or the fireplace plate, it turned out really bad. For me it means: never again! A huge mess, fine dust everywhere even months later, the result was far from a new floor. The not insignificant costs topped it off. Therefore, I screw solid wood planks down or lay parquet floating and can then replace it, although I can't imagine that parquet would wear out that badly. If the floor is to be subjected to such extreme stress and I don't want any natural marks (scratches, dents) in the wood, I would choose a different, harder material from the start. Here we have large areas of oak engineered parquet; in a few very rare places it sometimes creaks, but really nothing serious. However, it can be replaced at any time.