I didn’t do the adjustment of status for this exact reason. I got married during one of my visits (also on Esta), left after my visit and we started the CR1 spousal visa process. I was able to continue to visit while that was processing, I had short 2-week visits every 3-4 months and never had issues. Once I completed the entire visa process from my home country I moved to the US and started my job 2 weeks later. No gap in my resume, no stress about work.