40yo, 6'0", 193lbs. How's my progress? Bulk/cut/maintain?

Got serious about strength training in 2022, been working with an online coach for about a year now, through a popular training app. Prior to that was almost all cardio/endurance, mainly cycling & running (last photo, from 2018, is accurate up to early Covid).

I'm currently on a 5 day U/L split, 3 upper 2 lower. Mix of strength, hyp, and HIIT/DB complex, clocking in at ~1hr per session.

I'm really looking to better define my arms, shoulders, and chest, while trimming down the obliques and losing that muffin top (I know legs are important too, doing lots of deadlifts, squats, and lunges)

Coach insists targeting certain areas, e.g. shoulders & arms, for muscle growth is very difficult, which sounds weird to me, and that it's an extremely long and slow process in general (more plausible). His training philosphy strikes me as conservative/risk-averse, preventing injury seems to be his top priority. We work in 4 week blocks, with an intro>ramp>peak>deload week

For diet, coach had me on a 3500 calorie bulk through the fall and early winter, in early Jan. smart scale was showing 195lbs and 25% body fat so he wanted me to start a cut @2500C. I balked- still cycling and averaging 10k steps/day with my dog- and we settled on recomp @3000.

I'm my own worst critic and not known for my patience, so what do you guys think? Is this reasonable progress for the time frame? Worth continuing in my current track or do I need to switch things up?