You can backup your config files before editing them, like this:
cp configbeingedited.conf configbeingedited.conf__orig_datestring
This way, when things break or don’t function how you like, you can easily copy the original config file back into position, restoring the original functionality.
Yeah NixOS is my other alternative, but I think that rabbit hole is much more deep than the Ansible one :)
I also manage my few self-hosted things and play-things with docker-compose on my box, but who manages docker-compose files? :) And nginx config, and network-related stuff etc etc. I am too lazy but I guess I will have to bite the bullet and after 20 years of manually doing it all and backing up raw and praying, actually figuring out the next level.