Apple

Rectangle for snapping windows, like on Windows.

Keka for managing zip files, or The Unarchiver if you prefer simplicity.

IINA for watching video files, much like VLC, but with slightly better UI.

Bartender for hiding icons on your Menu Bar.

Those are the true "must-have" that I have on every mac of mine. I will add later if I can remember anything else.

Raycast

There’s no “must have” apps except the ones you need to use everyday, for some people that might be Office, for some it’s Python hell even Steam.

IntelliJ

Raycast is great, has lots of utility and my favorite function is to snap windows. Hidden bar is good because it cleans up the menu bar or whatever its called. Itsycal because I don't like how mac doesn't have an inbuilt mini calendar easily accessible like Windows. DROPZONE IS A MUST. I CAN'T TELL YOU HOW MANY HOURS IT'S SAVED. Hand mirror is a pretty cool app. Usage is nice too. Monitor control if you have an external display.

I would suggest not taking the approach of "install all the things" and instead only install stuff as you need. That might mean you have a strong preference for Windows-style window management, and there are some utilities for that, or it might mean a specific email program you like, or productivity suite like MS Office. The very few things I think are worth installing are VLC (because it's a much better video player) and the password manager of your choice (I use 1Password, and I would avoid LastPass or Dashlane, but there are many other good options). Otherwise don't install stuff for the sake of it, you'll avoid bloat and weird issues.

TextExpander CloudApp, now called Zight I think Drafts

I’m a dev so iterm2

Middle click. If you browse the web it’s awesome.

Desktop Goose. Creates a goose that walks around your screen occasionally trying to bite your cursor and dragging random text boxes onto the screen.

Windows 11

You can give Sidebar a try: https://sidebarapp.net It’s a Dock replacement

But I might be biased since I‘m the author 🙂

Alfred

Bartender if you have a lot of menubar icons. The functionality should be built in to macOS by now.

Honestly, start using it, and if something bothers you, try to find a solution for it.

Half of these 'must have' apps are useless to most people lol

My two cents on some of the stuff mentioned:

Definitely get a password manager. I personally use Bitwarden but feel free to look around.

AlDente works fine until it nearly broke my battery controller. YMMV, but it could be useful

IINA is brilliant, no complaints.

Rectangle is nice to have when you need to have more than two apps on screen at the same time.

For some really cool widgets you can check out Ubersicht.

Highly recommend Magnet.me for snapping Windows.

My three are Magnet for window snapping, PastePal for viewable clipboard history, and Hidden Bar for menu bar icon management.

Downie

Magnet and CleanMyMac

for your info reddit has implemented search option in subs, use that bro.

or there is search engine known as google.com go there and search for more info add "reddit" keyword at end.