If it’s a motivation issue, you will need to figure it out on your own. I could give you some advice but motivation depends on a specific use case. If you want I can share what motivates me but there’s no guarantee it will work for you.
As for getting back on a tech horse, there’s a trick I’ve been using every time I was learning a new thing and it worked every single time. I start with a project idea. I write down the major goals I want to achieve and start working on it. At first I do the “quick start” adjusted to fit my project. It usually ends up with a working proof of concept and a list of things I don’t know/understand. Next, I learn about the those unknowns and update the project with what I have learned. This raises more unknowns which leads to more things to learn about. After few iterations, when I’m happy about the project, I start a new, more complex project. And so on.
Flatpak is not the answer here. For example, flatpak version of codium doesn’t recognise terminal settings out of the box. Since such trivial thing is a problem, image how difficult it would be to use it with various file systems, sync options, etc.