I’ll try to keep this brief and simple...
As already mentioned, the OS portion is very protected on Apple Silicon Macs. Additionally, Apple has been moving more and more to the user folder. For example:
Some system extensions aren't compatible with current versions of macOS or won't be compatible with a future version of macOS. Learn what to do if you see an alert about system extensions or kernel extensions.
support.apple.com
This post gathers info about macOS Sequoia system extensions, network extensions, and third-party app extensions. It also tells how to enable or disable the extensions on macOS Sequoia.
iboysoft.com
Therefore, unlike the past, an OS reinstall is of little or even no benefit. Additionally, with the further sandboxing, experimentation seems easier — though not limited to experimentation. In fact, after upgrading to a new Mac mini, I’ve gone back to multiple accounts (for myself). As of now, one general (e.g., email, broad web surfing, photos, music), one for “work” (i.e., photo and video editing creation, etc), and a test bench account. Because, even though there are utilizes such as
AppCleaner or I can manually hunt down app remnants with not a ton of time and effort, organizing by account or deleting and recreating one (e.g., test bench) is a fairly simple way to keep the clutter contained and managed. That and incremental backups (e.g., TM, CCC) are a simple means of versioning (i.e., undo some mistakes).
With that said, as far as I’ve read but haven’t done since (probably) macOS Catalina, you can still install macOS to an external drive to use as a secondary/test system.
In the modern era,
erase all content and settings, which (basically) destroys and recreates the Data volume, then restore (i.e., user data migration) from an external SSD or fast network storage is the expected method, and should be fairly efficient. That is, assuming such an extensive ‘wipe’ is necessary.
