>you're more encouraged to install packages to the base system
From documentation, I'm not even sure how this is done. The only options for packages documented are platform-independent packages (Flatpak, etc) and apx (distrobox-based toolbox alternative).
This is the command for silverblue. For Chrome to work you'll need to enable it in "Software Repositories" (which you get to through the hamburger menu in the "Software" app).
rpm-ostree install google-chrome-stable vim mozilla-openh264 virt-manager libvirt
Maybe. I'm more comfortable signing into my accounts using Chrome packaged by Google than by a third party. I should probably familiarise myself with the linked repo to show I'm worrying about nothing.
