This is and interesting conversation. Let's approach this from a different direction. I just tested one way to do it. You could come up with others and other modifiers but think about this. Instead of starting low poly and working your way up, start very high poly, get a nice clean mesh and then optimize it. That way, all of the faces were properly supported and alighted in the beginning and you don't get dents and sinking and other artifacts. Plus the holes stay perfectly round.
Plus with this way, there is no tedious task of cutting out 'tris', adding edges, adding loops, relaxing, moving edges, equalizing long edges, etc. That takes forever and takes even longer to stare at it and figure out where to even start cutting.
It think this is also a great place to utilize the new 'Retopology' modifier because it's already nicely subdivided. I didn't try that but I'd bet it's a good workflow as well.
See attached.
Rob Holmes

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