Although General Relativity remains an impressive description of gravitational phenomena, it suffers from specific issues, such as the incapacity of producing an accelerated expansion without introducing a cosmological constant, non-renormalizability, and lack of uniqueness. These problems could hint that new physics is needed, and one possible avenue is to assume that a more general action describes gravity, which is the core idea behind Modified Gravity Theories (MTGs). In this talk, I provide an overview of a particular class of MTGs, the non-minimal geometry-matter coupling theories. More specifically, I offer my perspective on why this class of theories remains a valid option to put our knowledge of gravity to the test. Moreover, I highlight some projects I have been working on in this line of research, such as gravitationally induced particle production, late-time cosmic evolution, and regular black hole solutions. Finally, I plan to briefly mention a work-in-progress Hubble tension research program involving a theory of this type.
arXiv:2205.12545, 2309.15497, 2310.15018