Dipping my toes in Marketing Cloud... (need to since lots of Data Cloud use-cases involve MC )!!!!

Quick background... As Data Cloud continues to be one of the leading drivers of revenue for the Mother Ship and demand for dC professionals skyrocket, one has to be somewhat familiar with Marketing Cloud.  quick notes about it.
Market Cloud Engagement= fka  Marketing Cloud
Marketing Cloud Account Engagement= fka Pardot
Marketing Cloud Personalization = fka Interaction Studio (enough with these name changes !!!!!)

Segments+Activation(aka payload) + MCE as the activation target results in the creation of Data Extensions in MCE which is then used in MCE Journeys...

For near real-time, consider Data Actions. It is similar to segment BUT segments require 3 steps (above).. on the opther hand Data Actions require 2 steps only BUT SOAKS UP A LOT OF CREDITS !!!!
Steps are 1) Create Data Actions Target then   2) Create Data which contains the filter (segment step 1 above) AND PAYLOAD (activation (step 2 above)...so only 2 steps...
CAVEAT: once the Data Action is configured, using Events API, the API payload has to be 'dumped' onto a new Data Extension.. (so really it is also 3 steps.. to be honest) ​