The emerging consensus in the coacervate field is that different theoretical approaches are relevant in different physical situations, with the linear charge density of the polyelectrolytes being particularly important. Field theoretic and scaling approaches are thought to best describe low linear charge density polymers, while charge correlations inherent to the TM and other ion pairing approaches is thought to best describe high linear charge density polymers. By deriving these two approaches from a consistent starting point, we can systematically consider the role of linear charge density on the balance between ion pairing and fluctation-driven attraction. Indeed, in our formalism, these two concepts are separable because they constitute summations over two distinct sets of diagrams. By comparing these contributions, we can evaluate where these various approximations are more or less dominant.