Can I make an observation about a point?
"One thing I never realized was on a crop, if you're using a 1.4 lens it's actually 2.24."
That is not correct. The
f aperture of a lens doesn't change with the sensor.
If I use a f1.4 lens in a scenery that resolves a 1\1000 - 100 ISO - f 1.4 on a FF Camera on my APS-C Camera the numbers are still the same, i found this concept a bit confusing on internet sometimes.
If i take a picture and i crop it, the light remains the same.
The DoF changes because of the "circle of confusion" (i dont know how do you call it in English sorry!) calculated via Focal Range \ Lens Aperture \ Distance from Subject \ Sensor Size.
Edited after a "terminology" check