Catering

Even for stations, every butt still needs a seat. I'm not sure how this is logical anyway since stations would take up more floor space and a plated meal takes up none.

I work in the wedding industry, and I would not recommend stations if 200 is the max capacity. Stations require lines. Even if you have Room for a ton of stations, there is always a line. With a plated meal, it won’t require lines or extra tables. Keep in mind you still need: dance floor, DJ table, dessert/cake table, room for the line for the bar, head table/sweetheart, gift table (if not in a different area), photo booth and table (if you have one).

We never talked stations, but similarly our venue will hold fewer guests if we do buffet vs plated. We overinvited because we have a lot of out of town guests. Our parents let us know who should be invited but might not come so we could be cautious.
That said, we only sent out of towners the first round of save the dates. This allows us to get a better idea of who will come (but still not definite) before we decide to extend any +1s to our definite in town single guests or add guests from our maybe list.
Our stance on forgotten guests from our parents has been that they can add one that was missed, otherwise we add to the maybe list and decide later. Harsh but necessary.
I’m more of a plated fan than my fiancé, but buffet is cheaper so we will decide once we see the number of guests.

I went to a wedding that had stations in all four corners of the room for small bites and passed hors d'oevres (no full meal) l and they had different types of seating set up, standing only and seated. They didn't have space for everyone to sit and honestly not having a place to leave my bag or having to fight for seats to eat was my least favorite aspect.

I think the best is buffet or seated but to save space the best is seated.