Hi all,

I'm new here (first post) so I'm probably going to make a bunch of rule and etiquette mistakes. I apologize in advance and please correct me if I do 😀

Now, to my story/question:
I'm building my first retro PC ever. I was born in 1986 and my first PC was a 486DX2-66, but I've decided to go for something a little more modern so that I can play DOS and Windows games from the early 90's (like Commander Keen, Duke Nukem, Crystal Caves) all the way up to early CDROM games (like Rayman, Red Alert and StarCraft). I ended up getting a Pentium MMX 233MHz machine (an old Compaq Presario) with a 6x Creative CDROM and a SoundBlaster 16 (CT-2940 with the Yamaha FM chip), and I'm hoping to have some fun with it.

What I'm having some trouble with is deciding on and sourcing a monitor. I'm split between a few options:
1. "Era-appropriate" CRT: So a CRT from somewhere in the 90's up to, say, 1998. This would be the most authentic/nostalgic choice but finding CRTs is hard, and finding high quality CRTs in good condition is even harder.
2. "Best possible" CRT: which would be the highest quality CRT I can get, even if it's a later model. This would be a bonus for image quality but less authentic. These might be easier to find but still tough.
3. XGA (1024x768) LCD: Less period-appropriate (these would be from like 2002) and still hard to find, but are more convenient. Downside would be that LCD scaling is not great. Also, while 1280x1024 LCDs are plentiful, I'm wary of the 5:4 aspect ratio.

So far I've been able to source an old SGI CRT. It's a 21" Sony Trinitron tube but after installing it, opening it up and adjusting it, I'm finding myself torn because these old CRTs are so much darker, full of glare, and less sharp than what I'm used to day to day (which is an IPS display, either on my Macbook Pro 15" or my 4K 27" Dell model).

My question:
What do you think I should do? Should I continue to try and find CRTs, hoping for a good model? Maybe try and find an elusive 1024x768 LCD and deal with the downscaling? Any other idea?

I'd very much appreciate some sage wisdom here.
Thank you!!

EDIT: forgot to mention, one challenge is that I live outside the US and Europe so finding good quality older monitors of any type is very difficult. There isn't really a scene here and I'm mostly relying on the local equivalent of Craigslist for people who just want someone to pick up older monitors as an alternative to junking them.