M-x strokes-help

Interesting, I've had the exact opposite experience, so maybe both or our view points are at least somewhat anecdotal.

I really don't think there is a single must-have package out there. One of the best coders I know has been using vanilla Emacs for 20+ years with, in their own words, just a few lines of config. Also, for anything additional you might want in an IDE there are almost certainly multiple options available.

That all said, you are unlikely to arrive at your perfect config in anything near zero time unless you happen to miraculously find a distro that's somehow configured exactly as you'd like right out of the box. I can't really speak for any of the distros as I haven't used them, but if you choose the vanilla route (which might also help you to not get overwhelmed with config options right away), I'd recommend starting by adding options which are either included with Emacs (e.g. Eglot for LSP integration), or integrate well with Emacs' existing facilities (e.g. Corfu for completion), and then moving on to the other options only if you find them unsuitable.