10m with simple antennas

There is little doubt that when 10m is in the doldrums a beam and QRO would probably be helpful. Every bit of power would help.  An HF beam is unlikely to add more than 5-6dB gain (1 S point) so when the band is in good shape this is very little., but when the band is dead QRO and a beam might help winkle out DX.

Tenner QRP 10m CW rig described on my website

But what about right now? In my experience, even a simple omni-directional antenna is fine, coupled with QRP.  You might use a CB vertical or a Cushcraft AR10 vertical (both noisy on RX being vertical?) or the 10m halo on my website.

Even during solar minimums I have worked LUs with 10W SSB to simple indoor antennas. There are very few times when QRO really matters. It may help, but it is much more fun with QRP (rig and antenna). QRP CW can be great fun, especially with simple homemade gear.