Yeah, I totally agree with both of you. I often find myself deciding between varchar vs nvarchar based on the specifics of the project. Beyond Unicode support, something I always keep in mind is the index size. When you use nvarchar, the indexes can grow significantly larger, which can lead to slower query performance.
Additionally, certain SQL Server functions behave a little differently depending on whether you’re using nvarchar or varchar. If I’m working on apps with diverse languages or where user-generated content might be a factor, I always go with nvarchar for that extra safety, even with the extra storage cost. But if it’s a simple, English-only use case, varchar keeps things nice and efficient.