Sound and battery management come to mind. Things like swish, Alfred, and better touch tool also makes things much nicer.
I wouldn’t say that anything is necessary at all, but my goal was to see how usable I could make macOS (as I had been told it was too easy and non-customizable by people who haven’t used it). Non-mac people generally hate apple for their ridiculous money grabbing techniques (myself included), but they also probably don’t realize how good the M series chips are. Even after realizing I like them though, I will still never buy a first hand apple device… their pricing is absurd.
I’m sure there are free alternatives to most software at this point. However, some of the paid versions are definitely better. Also, if you’re new to macOS it’s easy to assume the app store is “the” place to get apps, without realizing you can buy them directly from sites - I did this myself once.
Overall I probably enjoy using Mac more than windows as it feels closer to Linux to me. But it definitely still has issues (constant iCloud popups are my main complaint). Also the RAM situation is a joke, I can absolutely crash my M1 air by processing too hard. Also it’s definitely NOT good for any sort of gaming, as the video output is choppy (can barely handle factorio).
Allegedly window snapping is coming in the next version of macOS.
Edit: love being downvoted by fanboys (mac fanboys? Linux fanboys? Who knows at this point 😂)