[oneplane]

Most distro-default/DE-default terminal emulators don't really make you do 'more' than just have a base terminal emulator. The extra stuff (in the likes of gnome-terminal for example) only surfaces when you actually use it, except for when you have duplicate key binds. If you don't use a DE, or don't like Qt/GTK based engines, urxvt and xterm are the best remaining options.

Zutty is an option if you don't mind trying (often) unpackaged software, but then st would fit as well with the performance difference being that Zutty leverages GPU rendering for more performance and st doesn't seem to do that by itself.

If graphics isn't your thing and you're just on the frame buffer directly, there is fbterm.

A lot of the 'advertised' emulators seem to be targeting aesthetic and 'cool' marketability, some are even based on electron or try to put filters on the output...