The most efficient strategy to minimize the performance impact of high-frequency updates on query and ingestion operations in a Delta Lake table is to leverage Delta Lake‘s MERGE operation. This approach allows for efficient updates, inserts, or deletions based on specified conditions, ensuring only necessary updates are applied. Clustering the table by update keys further optimizes performance by storing related records together, reducing data scan requirements. While options like compacting the table or implementing an event sourcing model have their merits, they either introduce additional overhead or complexity without matching the targeted efficiency of the MERGE operation.