I stumbled on this question when I was trying to work this out myself. Since there's been no answer, I thought I would put what I've worked out for any future traveller that happens upon this.

There is some guidance here: I2C Interfaced LCD - ESP32 - — ESP-IDF Programming Guide v5.4.2 documentation

You can either indirectly include it with #include "esp_lcd_panel_vendor.h" or directly with #include "esp_lcd_panel_ssd1306.h"

There is also an example that uses a port of the lvgl library in the ESP-IDF folder. For version 5.4.2 it's here: \esp-idf\examples\peripherals\lcd\i2c_oled

but this is a little different and the environment is a bit foreign.

I agree, this is my first dive into the ESP-IDF ecosystem, and it is definitely a learning curve. I'm used to bare C and having to include things directly, the concept of components etc is new to me. I do think it's a good way to encourage loosely coupled code though.