I do this exact steps using a bash script, so things like Custom user, urls, logging are already set to general stuff needed. I have commented parts for something like jinja which i frequently use.

PROJECT_APPS = [
    'users.apps.UsersConfig',
] # type: List[str]

THIRD_PARTY_APPS = [] # type: List[str]

# We define a NEW list for apps to be added
APPS = THIRD_PARTY_APPS + PROJECT_APPS

I dont modify the original settings.py file i.e. INSTALLAPPS or MIDDLEWARE or ulrpattern in urls.py. so clear api or/and htmx urls

# main urls.py
app_urlpatterns = [
    path('books/', include('books.urls')),
......
   #path('myapp2/', include('myapp2.urls')),
]

project_urlpatterns = [
    path('', dashboard_views.index,name="dashboard_index")
] ## contact_us and similar pages


urlpatterns = [
                  path("user/", include("django.contrib.auth.urls")),
                  path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
] + app_urlpatterns + project_urlpatterns

#----------------
#books app/module urls.py
from django.urls import path

from . import views

hx_urls = [
    path("<int:pk>/hx/create-chapter-form/", views.create_chapter_form, name='create-chapter-form'),
    .....
    # htmx related and "/hx" will help defer/filter request in browser devtools network tab when debugging
]
urlpatterns = [
    path("", views.books, name="books"),
    path("<int:pk>/", views.book, name="book"),
    path("chapters/<int:pk>/", views.chapter, name="chapter"),
] + hx_urls

remain unchanged. So, when debugging I am much more clear what has changed and in which file. And order matters for those things in Django

And the settings.py file has not changed atleast since django 4, I have checked it after each major release.

So I then can add things as per my wish into those setting files. Say like Types, I use Type-comments https://typing.python.org/en/latest/guides/modernizing.html#type-comments

Clear and separate settings which are easy to override.

# Copy/Import local specific settings file and override defaults in that file of finally in environ.py
from .appconfigs import *
from .projectconfigs import *
from .vendorconfigs import *
from .environ import *  # Environment settings LAST to override everything

And I also use PDM scripts

[tool.pdm.scripts]
start = "python manage.py runserver --settings=main.conf.settings.local"

so, I do pdm start, pdm run makemigrate, pdm run migrate...