@DerekD using the Carolina rig? You mean he's not fishing topwater? C'mon Derek, explain yourself 🤣
As for your Texas rig question, don't overthink it. It's fine. I've used it a lot over the recent years and it's saved me a pile of gear. The sinker is most likely to hit the bottom first on the drop, leaving the lure floating above the bottom, then it will follow it to the bottom then the whole lot will leave the bottom on the next hop. Then this will repeat again and again until the lure is at your rod tip.
For the Carolina rig, you could potentially rig a stopper on the leader to stop the sinker, but again, don't overthink it. You can't use such a heavy sinker anyway on 6lb gear that it could cause much trouble. But if you wanted to, one of those rubber float stoppers could do the trick, along with a bead on top of the sinker if you wanted to make doubly sure.
For your 2.5 inch plastics, you might need to go a size 4 EWG. Not all plastics lend themselves to EWG rigging (the smaller squidgy prawns and some 2 inch grubs for instance). They can just squirm around too much on the EWG to keep their shape. Others are too 'fat' and may require you to cut a belly slit in them for hook clearance. You might notice certain soft plastics (particularly the bigger ones) have a cutaway in the belly - that's what they're for.
I can't really help you with the dropshot. I've caught one fish on it, but haven't used it extensively enough to comment.