“Water when the top inch of soil is dry” is correct, and it’s also the piece of advice most responsible for winter plant deaths.
In winter, most houseplants slow growth significantly regardless of indoor temperature, because the driver is light, not warmth.
“Bright, indirect light” is the second piece of technically-true advice that misleads more than it helps, because it assumes a light level most winter apartments simply don’t have.
The actual fix isn’t more rules; it’s re-reading the same plant seasonally instead of following one instruction year-round.
Plants don’t fail because their owners didn’t know the rules. They fail because nobody mentioned the rules were only ever describing half the year.