Defender is at least as good overall as any of the third-party add-on packages whose names you recognize (McAfee, Norton, etc.).
One you might not recognize because it is primarily an enterprise product is CrowdStrike Falcon. There's a version of it available for home/small-business use, around $60:
I have not used the home/small-business product myself. But I use the enterprise version at work in my role in IT and it's very good. So I'll suggest taking a look at that.
Personally, at present I'm using Windows Defender and MalwareBytes, but I'm considering Falcon Go for future use.
I appreciate the advice. It’s really hard to know what to use these days, & I am definitely not a computer guru.