So for what it’s worth here’s the three rules of thumb I’ve followed for about fifteen years in Illustrator: 1. Pull curve handles out to about 1/3 of the curve segment they control. 2. Don’t turn more than 90° between two control points. 3. Avoid S-curves between two control points. Following these generally results in nice-looking curves that are easy to edit A lot of “designers” these days like to present a rule o…
One great way to handle editing of complex shapes that use 90° extrema is to lean into Tunni lines[0] as a manipulation tool. Unfortunately these aren't present in Illustrator either, as far as I know, and is yet another reason why Illustrator's dominance as a bezier drawing software is less than warranted. Most font design software is better for drawing almost anything in bezier.