Playing with balanced ranges makes you less exploitable when you are against players who keep their eyes open but it doesn't work against fishes.
Using balanced ranges simply means that you have a good selection of
hands (including bluffs) that you are willing to play most of the time in the same manner (e.g. doing continuation bets on a flop). But if you are playing only strong hands in a certain way and weaker ones in another way, then your range is not balanced.
GTO is another way to play which also works well only against good players. It is in theory the unexploitable way to play but if the opponent is not advanced enough you're going fail. If you're thinking - Hmmm my opponent has probably XX type of hand. If I bet x amount chips on this board I'm denying him the
equity to make the call... But if your opponent doesn't know heads or tails about equity your actions are not going to matter. So one could say that GTO is mathematically polished way of playing.
Exploitative play is often the most lucrative way to play in the micro stakes. It involves keeping your eyes open, spotting your opponents tendencies and using them against them (e.g. noticing that player A folds very often to a 3bet. If I raise x amount he will probably fold).