HISTCONTROL=ignoreboth
  HISTIGNORE='rm *:ls *:cd *:cp *:builtin *'

The history file has ALL the lines prefixed by space. I curate it a lot, with most frequent/recent commands near the end. And I add a lot of comments to the file so things are easily searched. And search for things, for example /rsync to find the rsync quick backup snapshot lines so first comes one with -n to check what it would do, then if it looks OK I press 'n' (vi mode) and get the same line without -n, or another 'n' and I get the same without -n and with --delete.

    (cd ~ && [ -d ~/backup_mnt/ ] && rsync    -xav --delete --exclude='backup_mnt' --exclude='.debug' --exclude='.cache' "$HOME" ~/backup_mnt/backup )   # rsync DELETE
    (cd ~ && [ -d ~/backup_mnt/ ] && rsync    -xav          --exclude='backup_mnt' --exclude='.debug' --exclude='.cache' "$HOME" ~/backup_mnt/backup )   # rsync NO DELETE
    (cd ~ && [ -d ~/backup_mnt/ ] && rsync -n -xav          --exclude='backup_mnt' --exclude='.debug' --exclude='.cache' "$HOME" ~/backup_mnt/backup )   # rsync LIST

For very long lines I always explain it in a comment.

When trying to modify a command, I remove the space, and when done I search for saving history and editing with '/_hi':

    history -a ; vi ~/.bash_history && history -r

and voila.

I also keep the similar lines aligned with spacing to note the differences quickly. (e.g. the -n above)

When exiting a shell and there's nothing interesting, history -r; exit

Also always I go to the end of the file before quitting vi so next time I'm where it last ended and before the appended new commands.

It takes work upfront and discipline but the everyday use of shell becomes very fast and clean.