I used docker run when I first started, I think it’s a fairly easy entry point that “just works”.

However I would never really go back to it, since compose is a lot tighter and offers a better sense of overview and control

Same for me, it all mostly started from the desire to have a single MariaDB and Postgresql container holding all the databases. Not sure if I could achieve the same result with different compose files, perhaps I can, bit never had the need.

I actually find my setup super comfortable to use