Blown head gasket, should I swap engines or... ?

We have a 2013 Prius V with 130k miles, it's been our primary daily driver since we bought it in 2021 with 90k. It's the perfect car for our needs, and I had planned to keep it another five years and 80k miles or so while we save for a replacement. Several months ago I got the dreaded P0301 misfire with occasional knocking on cold startup, and did a bunch of maintenance work in hopes that I could stave off the head gasket failure: fully cleaned the intake manifold, EGR system, fuel injectors, changed spark plugs, labeled and swapped locations on ignition coils, replaced the PCV valve and installed an oil catch can, drained coolant and replaced with new. It ran great after that, no knocking, the code cleared after a few days of driving, and we put around 4k miles on it over the last two months. More details are in a post I made about three weeks ago:
P0301 misfire, dealer says blown head gasket - options? | PriusChat

But of course, it WAS a blown head gasket, and the code and knock returned. The dealer and a local independent shop both tested the coolant and found "lots" of hydrocarbons in it. We didn't drive it after the code came on (both times) except driving home and then to the mechanics for the diagnosis.

The dealer quoted $7,800 for an engine swap with one that has 90k miles, since they don't change head gaskets on these cars - they say it's too likely the head is warped. The independent shop quoted $5,670 to do the head gasket (including resurfacing by a machine shop), which they would remove the engine to do. I declined both, since the car's KBB value is around $9,500 in the "very good" condition it was in before the head gasket blew - it doesn't make sense to put that kind of money into a car of this age and value.

It looks like LKQ has many options for JDM motors available a few hours' drive north or south of here, most are around 40k miles and $1,200 (plus shipping). I'm inclined to take that option and do the engine swap myself; I would need an engine hoist and maybe a specialty tool or two, but I have a pretty good set of tools and enough experience to have confidence that I can do it properly, and I can make time for the work.

The other option I'm considering is replacing the head gasket myself, which would certainly be cheaper but I have less confidence in that job. I did that on a 92 Subaru many years ago when a friend worked as a mechanic and gave me the use of a bay for a week, tools, and advice as I went. I have none of that now, but I do have a clean, dry, well-lit garage and can probably do it. I'm hesitant about that, it seems more likely to fail later on, and I don't have any mechanic friends nearby to help seat the FIPG on the timing chain cover (which is already leaking, so slowly I don't notice oil level dropping on the dipstick). An engine swap by comparison is "just" unplugging everything, pulling it off the transaxle, then hooking up everything to the new engine.

We've talked about replacing the whole car instead, but if we do I'd want another Prius V, a few years younger and under 100k. After selling our current one for whatever we can get for it with a blown head gasket, that would cost us around $8,000, and seems just as likely to need expensive repairs in the 8 years I'd want to keep it. Also, we have a set of winter tires on wheels for it and the brake booster replaced about 8 months ago, so it seems like once that and the head gasket are done, this car would have the two typical expensive repairs done and shouldn't have major issues in the next 5 years. AFAIK, the hybrid battery and inverter failures are less common and less expensive - is that true?

I've read some threads here about swapping in a Gen 4 2ZR engine to this Gen 3, to take advantage of the changes made that should be more reliable, and there are plenty of those available for similar cost from LKQ. I know in 2014-15 there were some changes to pistons and rings, and later (2018?) was a bigger change for Gen 4, the black plastic valve cover is an indicator. Do the Gen 4 engines pull the EGR from after the catalytic converter? Are there other changes that make the head gasket failure less likely? If I'm going to swap the engine anyway, it seems worthwhile to get one without these known issues, especially if we could hope to keep it another 8 years instead of 5.

We have an old, high mileage, gas guzzling Honda Pilot as our second car that we're sharing until we have a good primary car again, and I have more time than money to throw at this problem. Is there a better option that I'm missing? Spending under $2k for an engine swap is about the most cash our budget can handle; a replacement car would require a car loan, whereas we paid off this one a year ago. I don't like any of the options I know of - do you have any ideas?