I was in the same boat as you are and I went with a designated Garmin 1022 last week. David with shut up and fish hooked me up. I feel like the Garmin had some advantages.

I feel the 20 degree cone angle is helpful compared to the 18 degree from lowrance.
The knob is best for quick adjustments on the fly.

I’m no pro these are just my opinions.

I love my Garmin, but AT looks great as well.

I know that front deck

Great Video!! Garmin is #1 with Lowrance #2 choice (simple ops. for simple mind-me) Now for size and cost- would like 12" but budget says....maybe.

Seems that Lowrance live is more expensive, but in line with the more expensive Garmin displays. I ended up buying Lowrance Carbon 12's at half price during the BassPro sale. I don't know if it's true or not, but I saw several references to having to adjust the Garmin all the time. Lowrance claims set it and forget it. That was the deciding factor for me. Active target has been amazing for me. I added the rite-hite turret mount for the AT transducer so I can spot lock and scan the AT independently.

You will find the same thing with active target.. Each body of water is different so you will tweak it a little bit on each lake. With Water clarity you will tweak it also. If every lake you could see 10ft down then you would not need to adjust it.. I tweak my livescope a little bite on each lake but not much.. The reason I went with Garmin is because I already had garmins. I don't think you can go wrong either way..

I have run both. And both work well.
made the switch to Lowrance since I run all lowrance stuff already.
picked up a carbon 12 & 16 on sale during thanksgiving .
AT has a better forward range even with a smaller cone. I also find that I don't mess with my settings nearly as much as I did with my LS.

Well, went with 9" Lowrance....now I need to learn how to operate and interpret what I see. Played with Both at Bass Pro and like the ease of operation of the Lowrance. How does the Active Target show fish at a lake like Fayette that has grass?