[Willd]

Raising the flop here seems really bad to me. You're basically turning your hand into a bluff as no better hand folds and no worse hand calls. There aren't even any draws he can put you on to call with 99 or AK or similar.

Personally I like the line hero took (although I might 3-bet preflop occasionally) and would probably call the river. You only need to be good here 25% of the time and against most players the only hands that beat you here are Jx, QQ and 88 (very few people check the turn with AK).

Poker is about making the most +ev plays, not making the play that makes the hand easiest. The only thing you achieve by raising the flop is to make the hand easier to play at the cost of losing ev.