I guess there are multiple working and proven ways. The above is the one which worked for me as a full time Principle in a 10000+ "shop" over years now. Whatever will work for you will be your preffered way.
Running my nix config incl. dot files on multiple OS from wsl and Mac for shell env and paths specific coding envs via devenv to nixos on my workstation and server.
I started with home manager on wsl till I got comfortable and switched to nix full time in the run. Was a chore at first. Now, i do not want any other environment for coding. It just works and can replicate and sync all working environments with ease!
Im Linux all the way, but saying the difference from Windows to prod is bigger does not take wsl into account. It is way more near linux production environments than Mac.
You can start with getfleek.dev and transition to nix after you settled and fleek isnt enough anymore.
Using it on Nixos, Debian (wsl) and was using it (in the transition to nixos) on arch. Works flawless!
There is two of us. Sidenote: my workspaces are all named after the topic they represent. E.g. dots, htmxpoc...
Or you go with Ranger, lf or other TUI options and navigate completly keyboard driven in terminal with the overview of a gui.
Happy Nixos user here. Never looked back and after this ride I am not able to switch, cannot see the reason for imperativs anymore 😁
And whatever you do, stop shouting! 😁