How Does Third Or First Person Affect Novel Character Perspective?

I've actually swung back towards third-person lately after a decade of preferring first. Something about the first-person craze in YA and thrillers got me craving that wider lens again. The biggest difference for character development, for me, is how it allows for juxtaposition. A first-person narrator is stuck in their own head, which is great for intimacy, but you only see other characters through their biased filter. With third, you can be in one character's thoughts on one page and then, a chapter later, show how another character perceived that exact same interaction, revealing flaws and blind spots in both. You can build a character not just by what they think of themselves, but by the subtle distance between their self-perception and the reality the narrative shows, or by how others react to them. It’s like a sculptor working with clay from all sides, not just one angle. That’s not to say it’s easier. It can lead to a sort of shallowness if you’re not careful, hopping heads too fast without digging deep anywhere. The masterful use, though, is in works like 'Middlemarch'. Eliot uses that omniscient third to dissect Dorothea’s idealism and Casaubon’s dried-up scholarship with equal, devastating clarity, building them through a complex web of social observation and interior monologue that feels both intimately knowing and broadly wise. The character development becomes social and psychological simultaneously. My own writing attempts in third always risked feeling reportorial until I realized the trick isn't to describe feelings from the outside, but to let the narration itself adopt the character’s voice and rhythm when focused on them, then pull back for context. It’s a balancing act I’m still figuring out, honestly.