Affordable Handling Upgrades?

Personally, "the most bang for the buck" and "the most immediate needs"

subframe connectors are a complete waste of time and money. Those are for when you have "Most Other Stuff Done" and are looking for things to optimize

People would argue this, but I also believe you might improve handling by getting stiffer front T bars instead of adding a front sway bar, but that might be a tossup.

Here's the thing you seem to be missing.

As Carl Sagan would say

Boolians and boolians of these cars went down the road......down the freeway.......STRAIGHT down the road and freeway, with slant sixes and with 318s, and without sway bars, and they did it without the people behind the wheel fighting with the steering wheel. They did this for thousands and thousands of miles, so why can't you?

The answers are IN THE BASICS

Tires.................You need good tires without abnormal wear, and this can be a huge factor

Front end bushings, ball joints and other moving pieces cannot be worn and have play. This right here is the very very basics THE basics

Broken, bent. You can't have things like the T bar sockets stripped, rusted, broken, or suspension members bent from striking fermented dinosaur eggs

Alignment. The front end must be in alignment.

Once you have the above IN PLACE, THEN you can worry about sway bars, frame connectors and other add ons.

Exactly what I recommended, Alignment, Tires, Shocks then
everything else.
Wheel balance is also very important to keep the
tire in contact with the road and not bouncing forcing
the suspension to try and compensate and control.