Afaik generally there is only one way of doing most things

There are a few choices like whether you just want the package installed and left alone or installed and configured with nix

(Adding something to the systemPackages list vs using programs.firefox.enable for example)

You only really get into the really program-ey bits when you start using more advanced features, which you absolutely don’t need to to achieve the same things as a normal package manager

I’m by no means an expert but feel free to ask if you need any explanations/help