You're right. Using vanilla emacs as an IDE means configuring evil, eglot and window management. You can use doom/spacemacs but they hinder future customizability because you'll be fighting against your config and doom's upstream changes.

Conjure looks great but IMO it's not a 1:1 substitute for tight coupling between editor functionality and internal tooling. If neovim gets 80% of the way to a productive coding setup then emacs helps hone that last 20%.