I’ve had similar thoughts some several months ago, but I haven’t even figured out how to get a stable desktop environment in a VM (my experience with Linux is mostly in server-land). My overall approach for idempotency is a git repository that has a Terraform blueprint and an Ansible blueprint, and the whole kit is pointed at my home ProxMox cluster.
With this workflow I can lift and shift my entire localnet wherever I want in the future.
You could use a much simpler blueprint approach to accomplish your Desktop Environment VM. You’ll want to externalize any data that won’t get included in a blueprint rebuild (databases, games save files, media libraries, etc.).
I have Aphantasia and ADHD, and I can confirm that the sleep/wake boundary allows for some startling visualizations.
Apparently it is a different visualizing scheme that dreaming uses, so practicing visualizing in that half-asleep state doesn’t strengthen the bit that is used while awake.