MM IB vs PE Consulting before HSW MBA?

Would appreciate perspectives from people who’ve been through IB / PE / consulting tracks.

I’m fresh out of college deciding between:
• A very good coverage group at HL/JEF/WB (in EU)
• Alvarez & Marsal’s Private Equity Performance Improvement (PEPI) practice in Asia

Context:
• HSW deferred MBA admit (planning to matriculate in a few years)
• Long-term goal: maximize comp + strategic optionality, ideally with a reasonable path to better WLB over time
• Genuine interest in finance; have prior exposure to investing / markets
• Also intrigued by consulting lifestyle and the operator angle of PEPI

Original plan was:
Consulting pre-MBA → IB after HSW

Now I’m reconsidering whether:
IB pre-MBA → try to lateral to PE before B-school (if possible) might be a strictly stronger setup — both for comp trajectory and credibility.

A few specific questions:
1. Does starting in IB (top coverage group) materially dominate PE ops consulting in terms of long-term earnings ceiling and access to exciting/better roles?
2. How is A&M PEPI actually perceived? Is it a legitimate on-ramp to PE investing/ops roles, and would it have value in industry?
3. If I’m already holding an HSW admit, is there real option value in “trying consulting first” — given that I should be able to likely recruit into IB from MBA anyway ?
4. From a purely risk-adjusted career capital perspective, which path compounds better by age 35–40?

My head is telling me the IB route is better for career optionality in finance and signalling, even though I’d be able to save a lot less of my income given London’s much higher COL.