Lived in Ctrl FL for 25 years and my sister has lived in the metro Tampa area for the same. Parents lived in Clearwater - niece still does. Mo-in-law lived in Dunedin. There's another set of Keys and islands that act as a surge buffer. Those will be evacuated. None of my family has ever felt the need to evacuate and none have had home damage. All live or lived in a location included in the map below. Parents lived in a mobile home so they would go stay with my sister during a hurricane just to be safe but always went back to an intact undamaged mobile home afterward.
Pretty sure the keys/islands are where DeSantis made fame for setting up a temporary bridge.