No, there isn’t a better way if what you want is have an array with the data. Or maybe there isn’t, I might do it differently in order to remove an extensive if/elseif/elseif
based on the code you provided
// get the entire flex field
$layouts = get_field('page_layout');
if ($layouts) {
foreach ($layouts as $layout_data) {
$layout_name = str_replace('_', '-', $layout_data['acf_fc_layout']);
$template = locate_template('component-templates/'.$layout_name.'-block.php', false, false);
if ($template) {
// why am I doing this?
// if locate_template returns false, include(false) will throw an error
include($template);
}
} // end foreach layout
} // end if layouts
