Thank you in advance for your input!

Short version: What are some options to repair these pine floors? I would prefer to patch rather than sand and refinish for various reasons.

Long version: We have 3300 sqft of pine floors. 50 percent is in decent shape with only minor scratches and dents, and actually look beautiful in my opinion. But the other 50 percent in high traffic areas is very worn with lots of scratches and finish is dull and/or missing. The very long scratches (guests rolling suitcases, toddler rolling cars, etc) and missing finish in particular bother me.

Most of the scratches are due to us allowing our dogs and toddler to play on the floors when we first moved in because we didn’t know how easily the floors would scratch. We are more careful now and do not let the dogs on the pine floors, but still have 3 kids under 5 years old who play on them.

The house was built (by another owner) in 1997 and has a greek revival farmhouse style on about an acre in a country neighborhood. The pine is about 2 inches thick and resting directly on the beams (no subfloor).

I had a reputable flooring person review pictures and tell me I should lay new floors on top or sand (with a drum sander) and reseal the entire 3300 sqft because it looks like the current seal was not done well if it is coming off. However, I think the floors are original and haven’t been redone in 22 years and I think the current seal has held up well. I do not want to refinish the rooms that still look good, but he said it would be impossible to make a refinished floor match the existing. Also, in general, I’m worried about sanding because I want to preserve board thickness and the floors are higher in some areas due to settling and I don’t want to mess up the floors. Especially since there is no subfloor - it would expensive to fix because the solution at that point would likely be new subfloor and new floor on top. I also am worried about VOCs with the kiddos.

What are my options or what have others done in this case? If I have to refinish, what are some tips with pine? If I have to refinish all, should/could I go lighter and/or more matte to hide scratches? How could they be patched to minimize the visibility of the patched areas? I really would just like to touch up the finish and fill in the gaps to make it look slightly better. This makes sense to me at this time because it is meant to look like an old farmhouse and we have young kids. We could refinish when our kids are older. I think I could live with slightly different colors and shine, especially if an entire board or group of boards were slightly different.