Costa Rica Trip - Book a vacation package vs do on your own

I am a birder and got a good price of 400$Cdn Toronto to Liberia late January. I organized my own travel and lodgings. Car rental costs were excessive so I used shared shuttles between Liberia, LA Fortuna, Montrverde and Puerto de Sarapiqui. I used Booking for most hotels. No beach time, but I noticed shuttles picking up right from the airport for the coast.
Having been on TripAdvisor last Christmas season, know there seems to be an uptick at that time of year of csr and apartment thefts (sometimes inside jobs), police stops of rental cars. However you travel there, put everything away and locked up even for a short period of time. And don't take what you can't afford to lose or replace.

RT to LIR $850 with 1 stop - is it good price (?)

Hard to comment not knowing where the origin point is.

You should look at the price of a package. Whether someone goes on their own or uses a package it seems everyone ends up the same place. Even on your own you should arrange shuttles as the drivers know the roads and the times and it will be faster. You will have pickups and drop offs where you need.
Most itineraries to Costa Rica tend to hit the same spots. Since you are only going for 7 days you want to maximize your experience. I would suggest a package. All that you listed as desirable for, you can be reached through Liberia. Better than San Jose.
To achieve what a package would get you in 7 days verses do it by yourself would take probably 10 days.

We love Gate 1 travel and they have very nice tours of Costa Rica. I have been there and enjoyed the country. It is the Central American country least affected by the Drug Cartels. Still, not sure that I would want to do it on my own.

Check out the Two Weeks in Costa Rica website by two Americans who now live there: www.twoweeeksincostarica.com

They provide a lot of information and trip planning services. A friend mine used their site to plan her own trip. Their website also includes a lot of information for planning on your own.

Costa Rica is completely doable on your own. With the caveat that they have a very high highway death rate and long distance public transit isn't a great option.

So I would think the first major branch on the decision tree is are you up to driving yourself on unsafe highways?

Others on the forum have used Morpho Shuttles or other shuttle companies if they want to plan their own itineraries, but don't want to drive.