Is there a better way to get the category title than the slug?

There is:
https://developer.www.ads-software.com/reference/functions/single_cat_title/
or,
https://developer.www.ads-software.com/reference/functions/get_the_category/

Use: <?php single_cat_title(); ?>
or:

    <?php
      $categories = get_the_category();
      echo $categories[0]->name;
    ?>

You can use this function:

static public function slugify($text)
{
  // replace non letter or digits by -
  $text = preg_replace('~[^\pL\d]+~u', '-', $text);

  // transliterate
  $text = iconv('utf-8', 'us-ascii//TRANSLIT', $text);

  // remove unwanted characters
  $text = preg_replace('~[^-\w]+~', '', $text);

  // trim
  $text = trim($text, '-');

  // remove duplicate -
  $text = preg_replace('~-+~', '-', $text);

  // lowercase
  $text = strtolower($text);

  if (empty($text)) {
    return 'n-a';
  }

  return $text;
}

Let me know if my answer can help you resolve your issue.

@lucaslitextension Seems a bit excessive.
Use the native WOrdPress functions when they are available to you.
https://developer.www.ads-software.com/reference/functions/single_cat_title/

Thanks! I think both get_the_category and single_cat_title will work for me and simplify things tremendously. The last function may be a bit overkill for my needs at this time but will keep it in mind.