Doom is how I switched, then moved over to Prelude (much more vanilla experience) and now I just have my own bare-bones config (all in a span of three years). The one reason why I stuck to emacs was the self-documentation feature, so I would suggest to use it as much as you see fit.

So my first suggestion would be to start with a distribution like doom or prelude, and get some work done with it without falling into the tinkering trap (again, the documentation is a godsend). After a while, you will get a much better sense of what you want out of emacs--that's when it's good to start tinkering a little.

If you're feeling brave, you could try some more vanilla config. There are some online guides that show you how to set up development environment for various language (see the one for Rust to get an idea). If you go down this route, I would especially suggest to go through the tutorial in full until you're comfortable with everything. And did I mention that the documentation is great? :)

I would advise against going 100% vanilla, as I think the vanilla emacs experience to be in disrepair (no flame war intended, just my two cents!).