[boffinAudio]

>2. homebrew often wants to install things I already have, like python.

I think its important to understand why this is the case. The python you think you have already, out of the box in MacOS, is the system python. Its not the python you should be using - its the one that python-based tools that your system depends on, is using.

Brew installs other versions of python - and gives you access to tools that allow you to maintain completely independent, different versions of python - for a very good reason.

You simply should not be using the system python for tools that are outside the purview of the system tools - doing so can lead to broken essential system tools.

So, don't be so quick to resist this aspect of package management. Its also true of Linux, by the way - developers should be using their own python installations, and not just glomming libraries into the system-provided python tree .. to do so, is to live very dangerously as a systems operator and as well as a developer.