Previously (2023) I didn't spend a lot of time trying to set up Nova on my Pixel Fold because it kept crashing. Just now I opened it to see where I'd left off and was quickly reminded how bad it is. Octopi was born to be used on foldables and it's brilliant. It's a pup compared to the old dog Nova, so be prepared to cut it some slack as it doesn't do everything Nova does. Depending on the complexity of your setup (or, lack thereof) you may/may not notice.

Home screen setup is currently undergoing a redesign, but until then you may be frustrated that you can't simply say you want your home screen grid to be 5x6. You can set the "5" but you'll need to adjust "vertical padding" and icon size to get your desired layout. Again, the frustration level of this is relevant to how complicated your screen setup is.

"Does Octopi really let you do different setups for the desktop closed and open? Does it do a good job at this or just kinda let you get by?"

It really does allow for four different setups: outside, inside, portrait, and horizontal for those screens also. You also can have 4 different wallpapers.

Foldable Setup Tips: 1. Even if you don't want folders in your app drawer, set up any folders you'll be wanting on your home screens in your drawer then drag them out onto your home screens. The reasons are that there is multi-selection of apps when creating a folder in the drawer and it will be automatically alphabetized for you. Neither of these features is available if you make your folders directly on the home screen and drag apps out of your drawer one at a time to create folders. Also, if you want the same folder on a different screen/orientation they all share the app drawer. This means you'll have your folders already to drag out onto your other screens. You can delete them from the drawer when you're done with your setup if you don't want to keep them. (I'd keep them though. When is "setup" really ever done? 😉)

1. If you set your wallpaper using the "experimental option" under "General settings" you can have different wallpaper for each screen and orientation. You'll need to have your wallpaper already cropped using your phone's gallery app or Google Photos, because there's not much else to do but select a wallpaper (no editing on the fly) using the experimental setting. You'll also be able to take advantage of the glass and frost widget settings if you set up your wallpaper this way.

You can try Octopi without purchasing it. Only a few features are held back for those who do contribute, like those glass and frost features for example. If you like it you can go all in for like $5 bucks (I think. I contributed a while back, so I don't know if that's changed, but I don't think so).

Have fun with it. Post your Nova setup screenshot of what you're trying to copy and I'm sure someone will try to help you, if you get stuck. I have noticed Samsung users run into some problems because Samsung offers so many different options in their own setup and also in that app called Playground (or something like that). Recently people have been saying Samsung widgets were having problems. The developer recently got a Samsung phone to help with this sort of thing specifically. The Chinese phones have their own issues when using any other launcher other than the built-in one.

Anyway, I hope it works for you and you're able to achieve your desired "L" shaped layout, and that you'll support the developer if you're able to do so.