It’s split pea or ham and potato for me.
In my mind, soup is just a technique that’s really about the stock. This is just me suggesting that you all should adopt traditional French cooking technique.
For me, it’s saving old chicken scraps and certain veggies and then cooking them until they are mush in water. Grocery store rotisserie chicken skin, bones, and juice; carrots, onions, celery, garlic. Anything getting past it’s prime. No brassicas though. I’ll throw a t bone in there, but while really good beef broth is amazing, good beef bones cost as much as real beef.
Clam juice or shrimp/crab/lobster shells sauteed in butter with water (or the aforementioned stock…) Is also awesome.
Once you’ve got that, just put anything in it. That’s good soup.
Make sure that you put the correct amount of salt in it. If there’s no salt, stock tastes terrible.
Soups/stews exist on a spectrum. Most of reality is that way.
For soups: On one end it’s plain water. On the other end it’s a boiled potato or hamburger.
I mean, yeah, that’s kinda the joke?
Though I personally- and without any real authority- divide the line based on how it behaves on a plate (well, hypothetically,)- if the stock/broth would stay clinging on the topping/filling/whateveritscalled rather than just spilling out and making a hypothetical mess…. It’s a stew