How do you balance between automating tests and maintaining them as the application evolves?

As applications grow and evolve, automated test suites can become increasingly complex and challenging to maintain. This question explores the strategies and best practices used by QA professionals to strike a balance between creating effective automated tests and ensuring they remain reliable and manageable over time. Key considerations include dealing with frequent changes in the application, managing technical debt in test scripts, and ensuring that automation efforts continue to deliver value without becoming a bottleneck. How do you approach this balance, and what techniques have you found most effective?