The desktop environment is quite configurable and can adapt to a few different styles of doing things. For example, I like asceticism so I hide the menu bar (clock, etc, on top), hide the dock (list of opened applications and quick-launch icons), and have an empty desktop with just a wallpaper. I use "Spotlight Search" (which you get by pressing meta-spacebar) to launch everything. The search is very integrated with the system so you are able to start applications, search your email inbox, browse bookmarks and web history, open notes and contacts, etc, all with the same search.

But of course there are also feature for people who do things differently. One good example is Stage Manager [1]. There are also things like "Mission Control" and multiple desktops, but I am not the right person to talk about these.

Oh one more thing - seems like Apple likes to reverse things on purpose. So the "x" for closing windows is on the left, and not on the right. The desktop icons appear on the right, not on the left. If you use trackpad to scroll it's also reversed - when your fingers slide down the page slides down as well. Takes some time getting used to this.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7t_BCmY-lg

There are a number of different third-party window managers that you can use. Rectangle is a popular one. There are a lot of little tool like that so they don't always get incorporated into the OS.