Not that this should impact Obsidian much, since I assume the canvas thing is optional there, just a data point.
Related to infinite canvas _do_ checkout “The Humane Environment” [1] it has a few interesting takes
As for a more semantic approach to layouting, I think Flying Logic[2] makes a decent job of it
[1] https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/344726.The_Humane_Int...