Opinion: Do not start with other people's clutter and cruft!
After eighteen months of using Obsidian, I can share my recommended starter vault configuration.
https://github.com/philoserf/obsidian-starter/releases/tag/v1.0
This starter vault is a clean, uncluttered, minimalist setup for beginner or advanced Obsidian users. While it is minimalist, it is also opinionated. Look for yourself and see how you might adapt it to your needs.
At least one test user could use this GitHub template with the Visual Studio Code Foam plugin, too.
Good luck and happy note-taking and note-making.
Warning: There are two crufty bits in this starter vault due to GitHub best practices. Feel free to remove the README.md and LICENSE files after you fork the repository with the “Use this template” button.