We need a bumper sticker that says "Cropping is Not a Crime"
With both the D850 and Z9 sensors, I've found that you can crop in a LOT and still have a good quality print of a decent size. It's not like the old days. And it works out pretty great, because a lot of elusive small, rare birds are never going to fill that whole frame unless you have them stuffed and taped to a specimen board in the museum.
Years ago, I used to think in a purist sort of way. That photography was 100% reliant on what you caught the instant you pressed the shutter. Never did any post processing or cropping. And I couldn't understand why my photos couldn't get the look I wanted, which other photogs were somehow nailing by some form of magic. Talk about a revelation when I discovered how they were getting those images, ha! The magic was post-processing all along! In retrospect, it was silly for me to think that way. After all, Ansel Adams had written entire books about post-processing (aka: darkroom techniques).
In other words... cropping is fine. Just make sure it's balanced so that you're not sacrificing final product quality in the process.