I hate to say it but your arguments make sense.

But I am hopeful Europa Clipper and JUICE will measure the thickness of the ice, find the thinnest points, and allow the next step to be more aggressive.

Keep in mind that Europa looks a lot like Io under that ice and ocean. Those underwater volcanoes errupt, sending tremendous heat upward and melting the ice. We find a spot where that has happened recently and the ice will be relatively thin.

The upswell could possibly also bring any potential microbes or even more advance fish or plant life to the surface.

Also we should think outside the box. I read a number of years ago about an idea for a kinetic energy device that could potentially knock a hole in a thin part of Europa's ice. Look what DART did. We send a canonball the size of a small house, whip a gravity assist around Jupiter, and hit Europa at 70k mph, it could knock a hole that we could then drop a bunch of these mini probes in, or even medium size autonomous submarines.

We could even send a few nukes to melt the ice, but that might be a bit more difficult to pull off politically.

Power sources for the mini subs? How about some type of hydro electric generated power? Give them a water turbine.