Absolutely! I’ll give you an example. In the NixOS config for my desktop I have the lines:

{
  environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
    firefox
    ...
  ];
}

So Firefox is installed every time I build a system with this config. This is just like apt-get install firefox in that very user can use it after installation. The config lives in the respective user’s dotfiles (.config/mozilla/firefox) and will of course survive reboots.

What I chose to do additionally (but this is in no way required!) is a home-manager config for my main account with the lines:

{
  programs.firefox = {
    enable = true;
    policies = {
      DisableFirefoxAccounts = true;
      DisablePocket = true;
      DisableTelemetry = true;
      DownloadDirectory = "${config.home.homeDirectory}/tmp";
      OfferToSaveLogins = false;
      ...
  }
  ...
}

This is a declarative configuration that basically handles my dotfiles (profiles, extensions, themes, …) for me. I think you have the impression that this is mandatory, but it is really a very specific behavior through the home-manager module, but you can absolutely run NixOS without it.

From the article:

But most people might not realise that TikTok holds data about them even if they have never used the social media platform.

Websites that use pixels send data about every single visitor, so it doesn’t matter if you don’t have a TikTok account.

I’m not the type to put my dotfiles in git, though.

That’s what I’m saying, you don’t have to! Just install the package (like neovim or whatever) through NixOS and it will use your ad-hoc dotfiles like it would on any other distro. For a lot of stuff you can make use of declarative NixOS options (programs.neovim = { ... };), but you don’t have to, except for really basic system stuff like networking I guess.

Pre-compiled, non-system binaries.

Gotcha. There’s several ways do do this on NixOS (steam-run works like a charm!), but I’ll concede that there’s an extra step involved here that you don’t have to do on other distros.

That, and seeing talk about how great Nix is but also people having trouble later on too (major updates? bleeding edge woes?).

There’s a learning curve for sure, but I haven’t looked back or experienced any major issues (where I hadn’t shot myself in the foot) since 22.11.

Give NixOS another look. It’s no problem to run a declarative system as a base, and plain old dotfiles on top if you want, especially for user stuff. Not sure what you mean by “non-packaged executables” exactly, but I don’t see how NixOS would give you a disadvantage here. Heoric works fine as a Steam alterntative.

Every couple of years I give KDE Plasma a spin, and I’ve found it disappointing every time. Nothing terrible, just a lot of tiny bugs and inconveniences. I find it strange that it gets recommended as a beginner DE so often just because the layout resembles Windows a bit more. Gnome is so much more consistent and aesthetically pleasing… not that I use it, but it’s always my strong recommendation for beginners.

Good luck on your Linux journey!

bye