When an opponent plays a nonsensical response, should I immediately seek to punish it?

As a beginner, I've been sticking to openings centered around d4, QGA, QGD. I've found that repetition has helped me deliver a somewhat decent opening and middlegame.

Playing pretty much the same opening idea has exposed me to some interesting responses and at times I wonder if always seeking to punish a strangely placed piece is ever detrimental to my own development.

On the other hand, I wonder if ignoring unexpected (but not immediately threatening) moves is far too passive.

Is this really where transpositional openings and variations come from? and if so, is it a must to learn openings that can easily transpire from my comfortable ones?

Sometimes I'll look up some of my experiences in the Opening's Explorer, but my opponent and I are often onto something novel and unplayed very early on.

Perhaps an advantageous strategy against an opponent who is probably thinking to hard is to play something wild and wacky.

When an opponent plays something that doesn’t make sense the first thing you should do is ask why did they play that move. It could be threat that needs to be addressed immediately. It could also be something that doesn’t work and can be ignored or punished. The rule of thumb for punishing as how I think you may be intending it is that if it doesn’t net gain you a minor piece or better then don’t go out of your way to punish it. Sometimes punishing your opponent’s bad moves is following the opening principles, and letting them lose tempo in the opening. The best way to punish a bad move in the opening is if you can gain tempo while developing. So if you are able to make a threat and develop a piece that then requires you opponent to move the same piece twice, then that would be a great way to punish the bad move. Ignoring moves that don’t threaten anything or can be easily met with moving one piece to counter the threat when they make is often the best way to punish them. That way you continue developing and they waist moves to accomplish nothing.

You should analyze every move in the opening to see if it meets at least one of the opening principles. If it doesn’t then it is probably not a good best move. Unless it net gains at least a minor piece, or is stopping you losing material.

You should consider punishing it unless in doing so you are risking greater punishment from your opponent in return...

Improving Your Chess - Resources for Beginners and Beyond.....

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/improving-your-chess-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell

Playing the best move should punish the non-sensical move. However, the move may not be sensical because we don't understand the move. It's possible that it's actually a good move. If you can't see the refutation, then just continue make logical moves. Eventually you should get a better position and hopefully win.