Newbie - Version vs Published Files - SOLVED

Hello,
I have created a fairly simple pipeline using both the python api and toolkit. I created the pipeline to track shots from our stage. It was not intended for VFX (Nuke, Maya). However, of course, Nuke is the most important part of the process now and I learned today that the Nuke users are manually creating write nodes and navigating to the Versions we have published. I created a publish tool from scratch that creates a Version and the related mp4s and paths to the EXRs etc. It’s been great. So my concern is, should I be creating Published Files AND Versions or just one or the other. I have discovered that launching Nuke from SG Desktop cannot use Versions with the load menu, only Published Files. Is this a normal thing? Do most VFX tools only use Published Files? Should I be creating Versions with linked Published Files? I know I have several questions in here so thanks for any suggestions. I was thinking of creating a script that will simply go through our entire project and create Published Files using the info in the Versions (Path to files, etc) but don’t want to create new SG records if not needed.
Hope some of this makes sense.
Thanks for any feedback.

EDIT: I just found this page: What's the difference between a Version and a PublishedFile? - SG Developer
which explains that in my circumstance is does make sense to use Published Files and Versions together. So I think that answers my question. Still open to suggestions of course.

You should be creating Versions with attached Published Files.

Versions are a representation of viewable/playable media and the Published Files are the actual related files on disk, not all of those have to be media files, they could be a nuke script that made the media, or an alembic file that is shown in the media.

A lot of Toolkit Apps use Published Files as the basis for their interactions.