Jack Baty has a post that considers the best way of building an Emacs configuration. On the one hand, something like Doom Emacs provides a complete, no-brainer configuration that requires little effort on the part of the user. On the other hand, some people want to build their own and while they may accept some help basically want to be in complete control.
A curmudgeon might suggest that those in the former class consider moving to something like VS Code. After all, that’s the strength of editors like VS Code: no thought configuration that works out of the box. But that’s not really fair. Emacs is, for sure, a DYI editor kit but some folks just want to enjoy its superior editing environment without having to build it for themselves. One of the glories of Emacs is that you can have it either way.
For my part, I would never want to use a prepackaged configuration. From the beginning of my career—from my n00biest of n00b days—I have hated black boxes. Every time I found one—usually in the form of a library routine—I had to peek inside to see what was really happening. My Emacs configuration is the same: I want to understand everything that’s going on.
I could, of course, use something like doom and figure what was going on but why? An Emacs configuration is—or should be—highly personal, sculpted to precisely fit your workflow. It’s true that building it piece-by-piece will take longer but in the end you will have something that fits your needs exactly and that you understand completely.