The ESP32 has series tailored for different purposes: https://www.espressif.com/en/products/socs (eg. the ESP32-H is for low-powered applications). I don't know how it fares against the ESP8266 in power consumption but as a hobbyist I would pick an appropriate ESP32-XX first and only look at alternatives if it's really lacking.
It's almost problematic how many variants there are these days. I'm sure they all have their particular application but I sure don't know the difference anymore without spending a lot of time comparing. I feel like a few years ago you just went for an Esp8266 with x amount of flash. I thought the only difference was that and the form factor, but I might just have been oblivious of all variants back then.
I used to work for an engineering services company, and by default, our quotes would include a minimum of 40 hours just for finding and sourcing appropriate components.
Even for an experienced EE, it can be ridiculously time consuming. And it's one of those "hidden tasks" that has to be done but is rarely explicitly accounted for.
See also: https://products.espressif.com/#/product-comparison