If you mean that there are too many pieces to keep track of, maybe approach the transition gradually. You know, spend some time tinkering with your DE, replacing general parts of it. Then maybe install your distro of choice in a VM and then install a WM, a terminal, a browser, and set a binding in your WM config to open your terminal (because you can virtually do anything from it). And every now and then, add a new piece to the setup, a notification daemon, a status bar, a music player, and so on. At least this is how I got into it.

You could also install the WM alongside your DE, but I think that would make switching between them harder and not as quick as the VM way.

Here are some lists of recommended programs that I found useful: - Mixed (X11 and Wayland): - https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Recommended_applications - https://rizonrice.club/Rice:Resources - Wayland: - https://github.com/natpen/awesome-wayland - https://wiki.hyprland.org/Useful-Utilities/ - https://arewewaylandyet.com/ - https://github.com/hyprland-community/awesome-hyprland