Based on what I've read, the best practice is to always use braced initialization.. don't feel strongly and pretty sure it wouldn't make a difference here

Using braces {} to initialize a variable is, unsurprisingly, called braced initialization. Part of the reason C++ initialization syntax is such a mess is that the language grew out of C, where object life cycles are primitive, into a language with a robust and featureful object life cycle. Language designers incorporated braced initialization into modern C++ to help smooth over the sharp corners this has caused in the initialization syntax. In short, no matter the object’s scope or type, braced initialization is always applicable, whereas the other notations are not. Later in the chapter, you’ll learn a general rule that encourages widespread use of braced initialization.