Is there any reason why I'd want this release instead of waiting for 26.04?

FWIW, it's still an LTS release with support ahead of upstream. ex: the kernel and several software packages are more current than upstream Ubuntu. I'd also suspect that the integration for 26.04 may take a month or so, so you'll likely be waiting closer to 6mo for 26.04 from Pop vs Ubuntu.

https://github.com/jamescherti/minimal-emacs.d is a great starting point for owning your config.

On macOS: Install from emacs-plus in Homebrew

On Linux: Install from your distro’s pkg manager.

Came here to find this. MANY upvotes.

I used Doom for a couple months.

Then started considering a vanilla eMacs. I started taking notes on packages I found highly recommended and interesting.

Then I found this. And the author has done all that work and then made it into a “let me walk through a config” including a lot of the most recommended packages and sensible configs.

Gives you the lesson of building a config, knowing what’s in your config, and then being fluent in changing it.

He also has more notes on his blog about the packages + more : https://www.jamescherti.com/essential-emacs-packages/

And I now feel comfortable making changes myself.

I can’t say I’m surprised; but I am disappointed.

Too little too late?

Curiously, what is the alternative? Chromium-based browsers?

Sorry, but I don't trust Google's push to Manifest V3.

I daily drive https://kagi.com/orion/ on mobile and will likely begin to switch on desktop as their cross platform support emerges.

for web apps I ended up going with Gnome Web, but Tangram and Ferdium are other options I'm considering

Zen is Gecko-based.

Would you mind expanding on the usage of enums for the feature flags table? Why not use a boolean?

We actually did use booleans, I just found it easier to explain using enums, and the code would have been simpler if we'd done it that way.