Posting from an alt since lemmy.world is hunkered down again.

Sounds like you’ve done plenty of research already! At the start of you’re post I was thinking of Joyo and Behringer. I assume you’ve looked at Behringer’s super fuzz already and still chose the Carcosa. I have a Carcosa too, so good choice there! But I also remembered about Donner and Mooer as budget priced options. I’m not super familiar with any of their pedals, but I do see Mooer pedals more than Donner.

On distortion, the DS-1 is great, but keep in mind at it’s higher gain settings it retains more clarity going into an already slightly dirty amp, like edge of breakup or a little more. I’ve never played a Rat, so the Rat may win over the DS-1 in this regard.

Regarding overdrive or not, you may be fine in that regard with just the Oxford Sound’s drive knob, without any extra pedal dirt. A Klone is probably a a good choice for you here as a lot of people run them low gain as mid-heavy boost, and you’ll have the option to up the gain to use it an overdrive instead of a boost. There’s a bazillion articles and reviews of the plethora of klones on the market, including reviews targeting under $50 US. The Wampler Tumnus seems to be the most consistently crowned klone, but the Mosky and J Rocket options are also consistently rated highly at a lower price point.

Adobe has been on the DRM bandwagon since forever.