I had a South African friend wanting to visit in 2019. We went the fOrmal route, umpteen visits to Guarda Civil with our official invitation, offer of accommodation, etc and got nowhere, we had to provide tax returns, deeds to our property, proof of our own financial viability, on and on and on...it wasn't that we couldn't comply, but we lost interest as it was so much schlep. We told our chum to sort it out himself in Cape Town just as if he was a tourist with no friends in Spain.
He went to the Spanish consulate and was interviewed by a friendly Spaniard who didn't want to see his "invitation" from us, nor his booking.com hotel bookings, nor his bank statements....just looked him up and down and gave him a three months Schengen visa and wished him a happy stay in Spain.
Moral of the story is not to get your knickers in a twist.