I always avoid normalization as it does steps of the mastering process that you should be doing inside of your project. Normalization acts like throwing a limiter on the master channel and squashing everything. Yet you have no control over how it works; it will just normalize your song to be below zero (if it’s over anyways) (also not sure if it makes quieter things louder, I’ve had it off for so long hahah)

But by turning it off and paying attention to your master channel before you export, you have full control over how the audio will be handled. This mindset will also force you to get good at mixing your tracks together so everything fits exactly how you want, rather than some “magic tune up” at the end :)