Yes, we need to define what cluttering is… I see clutter as all apps from different repositories installed on single host and problem just waits to happen. When application is installed inside container it is separated: better stability (does not affect system) and easier to manage (upgrade, delete container…). But on the other hand we define clutter by number of stuff installed on machine then containers can be seen as more cluttered, because each container replicates binary files.
It depends on number or repositories (and PPAs in Ubuntu) you add. At some point something will break. But if you are from Arch, I assume you can fix things or documentation/help to fix it.
Homebrew in Linux is for terminal applications (e.g install neovim) or servers (e.g. install postgresql database server). I think you can install some GUI apps from Homebrew, but first try to search for flatpak repository, to follow the Universal Blue installation order recommendation.
Universal Blue general recommendation:
- use flatpak for GUI applications
- use Homebrew for text based terminal applications (e.g. neovim)
If apps are not available then use Distrobox commands or BoxBuddy GUI for Distrobox. See sample of how I recommended to install one of the GUI app not available as flatpak in BoxBuddy.