Yes, I've read that sort of advice as well, and it's certainly true, but it's difficult to restore something without first having backed it up. I was looking for some thoughts on the planned frequency and type of backups, given what I described about the databases. If the correct answer flowed automatically from an analysis of the situation, I wouldn't have posted my question at all.

I have no experience with restoring a hamburgered DB, just a few cases when I've destroyed something myself during testing, when all users were offline. In that case, I just deleted the database entirely, and did a complete restore from the full backup, to get back to pristine. Restoring something that users blow up, and maybe don't notice it for a while, is quite another matter. Experience with that provides insights that no amount of studying can replace.