Just another thought here, yes, you can have a low maintenance planted tank. And go only with low-light plants so there's no need for CO2. My 26G planted tank, now that I got rid of the unstopable hornwort, lol, has been virtually maintenance free, other than my normal PWC's. And the fish love the plants. Gives a sense of security.
You could also do a lot of fake plants as well, but won't look so natural. I'm only running about 1.25W/G currently, and have L. repens, a pot of clover, and java moss. Java ferns would work great too. And there's a wide variety of low light and even some medium light plants that will do well in a lower light setting. The only pruning I did was pull out my java moss off the driftwood, about a years worth of growth in low light and boomed when I upped the lighting, which I now dropped back down, and it's growing back nicely. As for the L. repens, some are now almost touching the surface. Haven't done anything to them since planting them 2 months ago or so. And with lower light, they just grow a little slower, but are doing well. So just a little more for you to think about and talk to the other person about. A low light tank, if done right, will only take as much real maintenance as doing just a non-planted tank. And if you did decide on this, I'm sure there's a lot of people that would help in the plant selection as well.
Oh, and one other thing, a planted tank doesn't need to be fully planted either, like some of our tanks. You can add driftwood, ornaments like caves and castles, etc, or a shipwreck, and then just have selective plants in strategic areas. It will still give the fish a sense of security. Also, for maintenance purposes, I wouldn't fully plant anyways, like my 26G. I have driftwood with java moss on it, and my other plants are strategically placed for the easiest maintenance, which is no more than the regular non-planted maintenance, other than maybe pulling java moss out once a year or giving my L. repens a trim once every 3 or 4 months when it reaches the surface.