I just learned about Org-node. Org-node is an Emacs package that mimics much of Org-roam, but claims to be faster and easier to pick up. It’s node-based (via org-ids) and is pretty full-featured.
I’ve (temporarily) replaced my Denote workflow with Org-node, to see how it feels. I like the node-based approach. I also like that it uses org-ids for linking. I often worry that Denote’s “denote:” style links aren’t portable.
Org-node is worth a look.