Thanks for the recommendations! I checked them both out, but for me iTerm is still a better fit. I think of my Mac terminal as my viewer into the lower level, and not as the lower level, and the batteries-included approach that iTerm takes (e.g. having a UI for manipulating the settings file) is better aligned with that view.

FWIW, they both seem extremely performant and would probably be a great fit if I daily-drove Linux.

I'm not quite sure what a UI to configure the terminal has to do with being a "viewer into the lower level" since they both run the system zsh and give the same output.

It sounds like it's more about the extra features being included than the "batteries". What features does a terminal emulator need other than "lets a user enter stdin and displays stdout/err"?