> Most people I know are not installing too many casks

I did a wipe and install of Tahoe like 2–3 weeks ago and used a Brewfile [1] I've had for years to install ~30 casks via Homebrew, including from the App Store, not to mention 50-60 formulas.

As of today, I have 44 casks.

[1]: https://docs.brew.sh/Brew-Bundle-and-Brewfile

I do something similar. I bootstrap all my new installs with brew cask https://github.com/fastily/autobots/tree/master/macOS/setup