Am I doing this right?

I expected a regular tower defense type of game, and was a little surprised that to start out with I didn't appear to have any choices. I soon realized it's more of a grind and upgrade type of game, which at this point is a welcomed alternative.
I lost several times on Wave 3, and a couple on Wave 5. After that I'd gotten enough money to steamroll everything. By wave 18 I had everything fully upgraded.
As pictured, I didn't see a reason not to connect every gun to every upgrade. Is there some strategy that I was missing? Maybe having split shot on a sniper makes it less effective? Or connecting several guns to the same upgrade splits its advantages between them?
The sound of the guns became a bit repetitive after a bit, especially since they drown out the music when things get hectic.
This was nice fun while I still had unlocks to work toward!