I want to switch to one of those Emacs candy looking setup, but it always ends up being a lot less fun once you have it installed and nothing works as you expects, the whole thing looks like grand father software and the UX is beyond bad.

Sure, if you put up with the pain of setting it all up, eventually, you have something that works and that only you can use.

You can try Doom Emacs if you want a solid starting point. (https://github.com/doomemacs/doomemacs). Emacs is so idiosyncratic compared to a lot of modern stuff people are used to, starting with a base like this may be a little easier than trying to do it from the ground up.