I am new when it comes to water filtration and have done a good bit of homework. I settled on the Platypus Gravityworks 4.0 with the extra Carbon filter for use here in East TN. We don't have much to worry about for the viruses and such up in the smokey mountains like they would in many other places and generally have good clear water sources. That said there are reasons I like it:

It's simple with no moving parts to break. It's light,(not ultralight), packs easily and can double as 8 liters of storage when water is scarce as it was on one hike. We used a good bit of our supply to help out a couple dehydrated hikers while keeping enough to get us through.

Steripens and such might be nice but they don't filter out the junk in the water like sediment, bugs, metals, or in the most recent trip, pollen. Lots and lots of pollen from a few downed trees from the previous nights windstorm. It might be 'safe' but crunchy water is not to my taste so to speak.

Pills/tablets are the same thing; they might make it drinkable in some cases but not so much in others. They are always a good back-up to have though I prefer to simply boil off some water for 10 mins and go from there. It takes less time.

If there was one thing I might do differently with the platypus it's that we didn't really need the carbon filter. It's more for cleaning up any potential after taste but the water around here is clean enough that it's not a concern. It does cut the flow down to about 1/2 what it normally is and normal is fast!

I like the super easy to clean feature: Simply backflush it for a few seconds and it's good to go. Open the dirtybag and rinse easily as the entire top opens (unlike squeeze bags). So far it's the most useful system for the 3 of us especially when using multiple stoves for cooking larger meals. Your mileage, as they say, may vary.