Oddly enough, despite being born and raised on traditional formatting and literally folding my drawing paper in half like a book before I start drafting a comic, ^this is exactly what I do.
My most common layout these days is just three evenly-spaced rectangles layered directly on top of each other:
And I used to be ashamed of this, because it's hardly creative and I am capable of more interesting stuff, but then I realized that my longest-running comic projects are the ones that lean on this layout. Meanwhile, the projects where I try to get fancier tend to die after only a short run:
So after a while, I was like...y'know...maybe don't fight nature?? If the art brain wants simple layouts without a lot of variation so it can focus on the drawings within, then that's what the art brain should get to have. ĀÆ_(ć)_/ĀÆ I will gladly "what-goes-in-rectangle" my way through a comic series if that's what it takes to actually enjoy the work and finish it.
Although, I feel like I'm not giving myself enough credit, because even an extremely simple format like this can have thought put into it. Upon closer inspection, it's pretty clear that I use these rectangles to set the pace of the story, in a subtle way.
The common 3-stack is "neutral pace", which is why most of the pages use it-- these are the parts of the story that don't have any emphasis on them in particular; either the rising or falling action.
Then there's the 2-stack layout, a slower pace that's used to highlight a pivotal emotional beat: often, the top panel presents an issue, and then the bottom panel presents the characters' emotional reaction to that issue. These layouts usually bookend each episode, showcasing the conflicts the characters are currently facing and the ones they'll be facing next time.
Finally, there's the full-page drawings, which I use for establishing mood: usually moments of deep sorrow or confusion/apprehension. Since these emotions don't usually require much movement, they're well suited to the slowest possible pace.
The only times I break away from this large-scale formatting are for dramatic actions, like in fight scenes, comedy gags, or just high-energy moments where I really want to show that a character is moving in a specific way. And the fact that I usually don't use smaller, more-involved paneling actually makes these actions stand out more.
In conclusion: there's strength in simplicity and all that. Basically (like with anything in comics), the complexity or variety of your layouts may not matter as much as how you choose to use them.