looking for advice on which parts of the Everglades to check out and where to stay

My SO and I are heading to Florida for the first time in February to check out the Everglades and swim with manatees. It's a super short trip but we're trying to pack in as much as we can. We fly into Miami around 6:30pm on 2/12 and the initial plan was to drive to Everglades City that evening, where we have an Airbnb for 2 nights. We'd check out the Everglades (airboat tour, etc.) 2/13 and maybe early 2/14 before heading up to Crystal River to swim with manatees. But now I'm wondering if it makes more sense to spend the night of 2/12 in someplace like Homestead so we can then make our way east to west across the park on 2/13 and then spend that night in Everglades City.

Is it worth checking out Shark Valley and Flamingo, or are those areas not that different from the area around Everglades City?