I agree you should do weight you can handle using proper form and increase slightly at a time to reach your targets. People tend to rely on the belt if they are using one.
All a belt does is create internal rigidity of the core. It might "give" somebody 20 pounds that they wouldn't otherwise be able to do on that day for some reason. Proper form is important no doubt, but proper form is hard to get correct the closer to your max you are. This is just pedantic but I think it's meaningful to push a little bit more, add new weight etc.
I consider my max to be how much I can do with proper form. I'll push a bit over until I can do that new weight in control of my form for the total reps.
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