No specific reads about villain, he doesn't have a full stack so I presume hes a rec.

Spots like this are tough for me because i kinda don't know what to do with my hand, in this situation I have a medium hand but giving free cards feels like a really bad idea. Snowie plays here a mixed strategy of checking and betting.

My hand is very vulnerable on later streets and lots of cards will be troublesome for me, any diamond or higher card to my 5 will be a scare card, and it will be hard for me to call if villain bets. On the other hand betting might just pump the pot and I have medium strength hand that would like to keep the pot as low as possible and see showdown.
I'm taking into consideration that villain is a rec player and I probably don't have much of fold equity on such board. I go through my head will all the possible hands I might have, I consider the strength of my hand and make the best possible action.

One of the things I thinking about is betting for protection the correct way to play in certain spots when our hand is not really a bluff or value hand but still doesn't want to see the next street? I heard somewhere that 'betting for protection' is a thing of the past, so just would like to hear if that kind of play is correct.

I decided to not make the pot larger, taking into account that a rec player probably won't fold here.

I decided to fold because my hand here felt too weak to call, and still, a lot of rivers will give me problems if villain bets again.