As someone who hasn't done more than dabble in Nix one weekend a few years ago, I don't doubt how powerful it is, but I'm not fully convinced that similar power

As someone who hasn't done more than dabble in Nix one weekend a few years ago, I don't doubt how powerful it is, but I'm not fully convinced that similar power couldn't be achieved with a better UX. My sense is that most people who voice concerns like the parent comment probably feel the same; right now, the amount of "activation energy" needed to get to the point where it's worth it feels too high, and I don't know if it's more likely that Nix will fix that (either in terms of better UX or documentation) or if someone else will come up with something that managed to give a better tradeoff in terms of amount of work needed to get started.