> no databases

You can query Markdown files with the (third-party) Dataview plugin. Wrote about it here[0], very simple query syntax. Only tables and lists, but tables is the one I've used by far the most in Notion.

> no nice templates

Well you can always create your own. There's a first-party templates plugin[1] and a similar third-party one that also allows custom variables and has a showcase[2] (think: you can curl the weather and add it to your journal).

Having wrote that, your "a lot of custom configuration" definitely applies.

[0] https://input.sh/replicating-notions-tables-with-obsidian-pl...

[1] https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Templates

[2] https://github.com/SilentVoid13/Templater/discussions/catego...