set -x configures the running process, your shell. This is a posix standard flag. See https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/V3_chap02.html

there has to be a hook somewhere for every command that executes

Why do think this? I’m not aware of any shells that have such a feature. I’m not saying it couldn’t be done, but it would be a new feature.

I like the other suggestion of having a wrapper script that does what you need.

Thankfully that still has a distinct word: flow https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)

I’ve been so happy with bazzite.

I’ve been going through my old steam library enjoying stuff from the past, and also playing some old and some new games I’ve never played before.

Interesting tidbit, bazzite’s system management CLI tool is a just script.