On the dock front, I recommend putting it on the left for a 16:10 display.
I almost never use the dock on the bottom anymore. I find this a lot more useful, and it fits with the aspect ratio of the screens that are being shipped.
I've been playing with the option in macOS to hide the menu bar as well. The extra screen space is significant to me. The one draw back is that I have a habit of glancing up at the clock from time to time. Now, that's hidden, and I find myself totally losing track of time. Not such a big deal now for WFH, but I do spend more time on things than I would if the clock were still in view. Other than that, I don't miss the menu bar either.
On the left and hidden. Code and English documents are top-left biased, so this position means as well as being near the menu bar it's typically closer to your pointer position than the bottom is. Also, I like to add my Application folder to the dock as a more-compact replacement for Launchpad.
I almost never use the dock on the bottom anymore. I find this a lot more useful, and it fits with the aspect ratio of the screens that are being shipped.