Is it worth applying with an immigration lawyer for Naturalisation in my case? (Your opinion / past experience really matters to me!)

In short, I will be eligible to apply for naturalisation this August through the 5 year skilled work visa route (ILR obtained August 2024) and want to see if the process is worth applying with my lawyer for my circumstance (fees: £720 - £1000), given that I'd prefer to save my money but if there's a reasonable risk of rejection or delay, I wouldn't mind paying for timely acceptance of this very long and exhausting journey.

Back in sept 2020 during COVID, I left the country to work remotely abroad w. Family in the MEA for 3 months (with employer's approval) but ended up getting stuck for longer (<6months) due to travel ban. This unfortunately, pushed my total stay outside the UK to-date to 475 days (>450 days). I consulted an immigration lawyer then and have been with him since then to compile disruption evidences correctly (newsletter articles and gov warnings for flight bans), draft an explanation letter and ensure I'm on-track for everything with no surprises. Please note that I applied with him for ILR to make sure all goes to plan and eliminate any risk or error on my side ("leaving the bread to the baker" kind of thing).

Now, I have a small time window of less than a month this year between august and sept to put my application through to meet the "physically in the country 5 years ago" or risk extreme delay due to my previous travel. Furthermore, I've been hearing people get rejections or delays now as the H.O. /UKVI no longer accepts Covid disruption on the basis that " you shouldn’t have left the UK during the pandemic anyway" and they're not budging. Should I apply with him from your opinion if you've completed recently?