Usually, I prefer manually installing the packages needed for getting started with a new language or technlogy.
I avoid using distro package managers since they tend to be a bit outdated in this regard, and specialised package managers like SDKMAN! seem overkill for one or more packages. Exceptions being languages with excellent tooling and version management like Rust or Ocaml.
I’ve been doing this for a while and was wondering what the general consensus is
+1 to running whatever is packaged by your distro. For me, Fedora is rarely out of date. If worse comes to worse, you can always volunteer to become a packager and improve the ecosystem for everyone while fixing your own problems.