"- Debug: should not show up in normal logs but you can turn it on down to a specific log message in a running process without restarting. We use structured logging so we have the additional ability to turn on debug messages down to a specific key=value pair (or set of key=value pairs)."

I always turn on the highest log level unless there is a very strong performance reason against doing so. I have been able to resolve a lot of issues over the years because I had good logging when something went wrong.

I don't really see alerts as logging. They are an integral part of the application's behavior.