I can remember being in your shoes - soak it all in, but most importantly get out in the mountains and look at where elk are and where they aren’t.
All elk leave tracks - learn to tell the difference between cows and bulls.
Keep in mind a lot of elk hunting success is based on local knowledge of elk behavior in that area.
Back in my firefighting days we flew over some really good elk country in the Wyoming Bighorns and saw a number of elk. On the ground we met up with the local Forest Service contact (that I knew was a long time elk hunter) - he said in that area it’s some of the best hunting in the entire area, but some drainages always have elk, and others that look identical rarely do.
In other situations elk rarely hang out in the most elk looking spots of a mountain, but are out in the foothills and flats.
Elk have long legs and can easily move 10 miles without breaking a sweat - when two legged goofballs get them moving around there are areas they will naturally funnel through and areas that just aren’t preferred for one of a dozen reasons. In some situation the bulls will move and some they have learned to dig into thicker areas and hold tight. Trying to apply textbook rules of thumb to moving elk is questionable unless you gain some local knowledge.
Figure out where you want to hunt, then focus on information that pertains to that area. If you’re a rifle shooter ignore most of the bow hunter advice since the rut is it’s own thing altogether. If you‘re hunting on foot, ignore a lot of the photos posted by guys on horseback - they can travel many times as far as a guy on foot and it makes sense for them to focus on different areas that benefit from being more mobile. Outfitters also know what works in that area for the type of guides and clients they have.
If you’re a backpacker it changes things compared to hunting with the crowds closer to roads. An identical timbered ridge that opens to a grassy bowl won’t hold much 1 mile from the roads, but 4 miles in it might. As a general rule, car campers hunt in up to 5 miles or so, and horse hunters camp at least 5 miles in and hunt out in all directions. There is probably a horse hunter that checks out that stereo typical ridge 4 miles in.
Luckily, elk are predictable. One outfitter told me guiding for elk is somewhat boring because they are so predictable.
Large bodied animals conserve heat better than skinny animals, (same as with people) - this affects where they spend the days in any given weather.
A friend of a friend was one of the most successful trophy bull hunters during bow season - every year he passed on many small six point bulls in a section of the state with low overall bow hunting success. Nothing you could read would suggest what he did made sense. He found pockets that held elk, but were avoided by hunters - that area only produced during the rut.