A continuous snapshotting filesystem would be a more rigorous approach.
APFS is that, no? That’s how Time Machine works.
Kinda. It supports consistent snapshots but they are not easy to access or copy or ... except through TM. It ends up closer to VSS or LVM in usability, though it doesn't have to be since the architecture is better.
ZFS is likely the canonical example of a system that makes constant snapshots easy to use and access and deal with.
BTRFS is also not bad
Does ZFS snapshot every single operation you do? That sounds pretty cool. Unless you're saying snapshots are cheap but you have to create them manually, in that case it's not very useful against accidental deletion.
Sanoid is a great set-and-forget ZFS wrapper for snapshots. Also has syncoid to do offsite backups (ssh or usb hard disks)