Control panel like Plesk or cPanel vs manual Nginx and Apache setup on EC2 for high traffic PHP and Node.js performance and security

I am planning to deploy a high traffic application on AWS EC2. The backend includes both PHP and Node.js. For PHP I need Apache compatibility due to .htaccess and existing behavior, while Node.js handles APIs and background services.

I am deciding between using a control panel such as Plesk or cPanel, or configuring everything manually.

In both cases the stack would be similar, with Nginx in front and Apache with PHP FPM handling PHP, alongside Node.js running separately. The difference is that a control panel adds extra services like its interface and other background components, while a manual setup would remain minimal.

My focus is only on performance and security in a production environment under high traffic.

Does a control panel introduce any meaningful overhead compared to a minimal manual setup with the same stack?

From a security perspective, how significant is the additional attack surface of a control panel in real-world use?

Also, in large scale systems, do teams generally avoid control panels and rely on manual setups for better performance and security?

Environment is AWS EC2 running Linux.

Looking for insights based on real production experience.