The installer issues are annoying. I just barely started using Nix, and I'm completely new to it. I wasted an entire day tinkering with the default Nix install to enable flakes and other features that are apparently experimental, even though they are widely used by the community. In the end, I did use the Determinate Systems installer simply because, on Mac OS at least, it provides Flakes out of the box, functioning package search, and the Zero-to-Nix guide assumes you are using their installer. It's hard for me to judge why exactly this is a bad thing. The site seems to just list it as an aside for the ineptitude (intentional or not) of the Nix maintainers.