Head gasket vs engine, a few questions

Hi all.
I have a few questions after searching the subject for a few days.

we have a 2012 with 238,000 on it.
It’s been using a small bit of coolant (like a few ounces) the last few oil changes, but last week I got a cylinder 2 misfire code. Thinking it was just that, I replaced plugs and coils, as the coils were original, and #2 seemed to have an arc mark on the boot.
A few days later the code came back, and the coolant is down again, which now leads me to believe head gasket failure.

I was originally going to just do an engine swap, but getting a good one isn’t what one might call cheap, though my local yard has a Gen 3 with 139,000 for $2400. I won’t go the Gen 4 route.

Then I got to thinking about the head gasket/oil usage of a replacement, and got to thinking head might be the best route. it would certainly be cheaper, even if I got a reman head.
The current engine uses between 1/4 and 1/2 quart fairly consistently between oil changes which are 6-7000 miles with Mobil 1 0w20 AFE, so certainly not excessive and quite a bit less than what seems “normal” here.

I have concerns about possible engine damage from the leak in the form of a bent rod though.

FINALLY the questions!
I think I should be able to tell a bent rod by a compression test, but would like confirmation.
If I have a bent rod, all of this doesn’t matter much.

Assuming I can do just the head, is it best to have it gone through (or even get a rebuilt head) or just checked over?
if rebuilt, is there a known good place to get one ready to go that you all recommend?

If engine, some mention doing the head gasket as a preemptive procedure. Is it worth it?
we need the car about one more year, but would like to get two, which means about 60,000 more miles.

no matter what, I plan to replace the water pump and probably the egr cooler too, or at least clean it, but I believe Toyota did that when we had the intake replaced due to buildup (their diagnosis and fix, and they mentioned egr).

Anything else I’m missing about this?

 

I don’t think I’d do a short block. If I were that far into disassembly, I’d just rebuild it myself at that point.
I’m going more for speed of repair, or rather minimum downtime, vs longevity.
Right now I’m going to do the compression test, and go from there I guess.

 

Just finished measuring the piston height with my custom made tool, lol.
All looks great on that end.
The “tool” is an M12 x 1.25 (spark plug thread) to 1/4 npt fitting, a 1/4” female to female, a 6” piece of 1/4” pipe, another female to female, and a 1/4” air hose fitting. This will allow a 3/16” diameter rod to slide fairly easily through it, and gives a nice edge to measure from to the top of the rod. Obviously this could be modified to one’s liking.

I’m now debating replacing the timing components while I’m there, as the stretch test seems a bit harder to measure, though I suppose I could attempt the measurements with it in place before removing.
If I replace them, should I go with OEM Toyota or something good aftermarket (if such a thing exists)?