sadly i have had the misfortune of seeing both examples with my own two eyes 🤦🏻‍♀️

using that example "mark smiled" what if i don't want to say his name and saying "he smiled is confusing?" well, maybe "then, a small smile on a smart face" "blonde hair concealed the joy of his eyes but not his mouth" "there, that smile. how could he dismiss it?"
SO MANY WAYS I LOVE LANGUAGE

you can use your character's names and their pronouns as maaaaany times as you want in a paragraph without making use of antonomasia i promise u. if u make your sentences short, long, short, long, or whatever other order u like the repetition can even be poetic. it's quite literally a writing style.

they write "bluenette", oe "pinkette". STOOOOOOP