Interesting.
Personally, I run loosey-goosey, as you are well aware.
But I am going to run a module so that I have a more defined timeline. It will be more of a challenge with a 12-year-old and wrangling my own 40+-old kids and their schedules. I suspect shorter games than longer ones, i.e., a 2-hour block rather than an 8-hour block. This means tighter writing to try and actually get something done rather than, say, one combat.
I like a lot of different systems, but frankly, my friends and I (Stranger and another couple that don't play on message boards) tend to use Google Docs and just roll dice in our browsers. Zoom/Google Meet/Team for voice and potentially video. We don't demand a lot. A place to put a map, a picture of an NPC, and a place to write creatively together.
I could easily do that with my sons and grandson, just considering other options because I could make the game prettier. But the cost is certainly a factor.
I don't want to host a server, though I certainly could. I have a place to do so (fixed IP). All I have to do is arrange a box to hang it off of. Right now, it just goes to my router, which allows for faster traffic when I am working. That also would take time to learn more stuff, and then the question becomes how much my time is worth.
Just dream if I was a kid again.... but I am not. I won't spend hours hand-drawing maps, or using any of a billion mapping programs. I will likely purchase a map, port it someplace and use it.