It took me an embarrassingly long number of decades as a linux user to discover the wonders of GNU Stow and similar symlink-farm managers for version-controlling dotfiles... It's gamechanging
The VFX and HPC industries pretty much all work like this, all using a variety of custom software. Whether it's symlink/dotfile management, or $PATH/$LD_LIBRARY_PATH customisation to achieve a similar effect. Always difficult to explain to Windows users. The best example is asking an Adobe/Excel user how they'd manage 10 versions (and matching config/settings) of their preferred application on the same machine without needing to reinstall. Watching the tiny mind explosion when they finally get it is always a chuckle.
