One day I will look into NixOS, I am eyeing it for a while now, but I don't feel confident enough with my Linux skills to switch. However, I do agree with you, and it's exactly what I am doing, stripping the compose files of all the CasaOS stuff, use one per service, and versioning them in git. I am also learning about .env files and other things that I wasn't really aware of before, it's fun and very customizable :)
Thanks for all the suggestions :)
Ah! I started with Yunohost too (and actually still have it on a Pi), definitely opened the port for all this in a nice way!
I agree with you on Docker, it can get complicate but the basics are very very easy. I would probably go with DockGe, I tried both before but didn't like much portainer :)
But thanks for both comments :)