When should custom fingerprints override Sentry's default grouping instead of tuning server-side rules?

Our team is deciding how to manage issue grouping in Sentry for a growing set of services. We know Sentry groups events primarily by stack trace, with fallbacks to message and exception type, and that we can override this either by setting a custom fingerprint in the SDK (for example in a before-send hook) or by configuring server-side fingerprinting rules in project settings.

The unresolved decision is where that override logic should live. SDK-level fingerprints travel with the code and are version-controlled, but require a redeploy to change. Server-side rules can be adjusted without a release, but live outside the codebase and are easier to forget. We are also concerned about the documented risks: a fingerprint that is too broad merges unrelated bugs into one issue, and any grouping change does not retroactively regroup historical events, so we expect duplicate issues during any transition.

Assume a recent SaaS Sentry version with the current grouping algorithm active.

Which approach do teams typically treat as the primary mechanism, and what criteria decide when an override is justified at all versus accepting noisy default grouping? Is there a practical way to validate a fingerprint's blast radius in a staging project before rolling it out broadly?