> What is the modern way?

Pretty sure they mean something that at least involves use-package, vertico/consult/etc. or equivalent, company or corfu, project.el or projectile, and magit.

> You can start with a minimal config like Emacs Bedrock or Prelude, and then learn about those options first.

Prelude seems nice but I wouldn’t call it minimal unless you’re comparing to Doom and Spacemacs.

BTW project.el is now built-in; more and more good things receive canonical built-in implementations that are actually good.