Each system has a text file where I note down the steps I did to install and configure something new or also when doing major changes. Also the steps for less often routine jobs (like major OS updates) get entries. On one hand it is kind of a log book what changed on the systems and also is a wonderful sources for when you need to do it the next time.

I don't think I've done anything to my laptop that I can't google in a minute or two at the most. I don't really need that visibility. If I need to know something very specific, I could always drop it into a note to keep.

The visibility of the changes aren't a virtue in themselves, it is only when you do something with them that they become useful.

Spending hours documenting my build system for my pet laptop to save myself 60 seconds a few times a year isn't a good payoff for me. If the payoff is that you also learn configuration management along the way, then that's fine.

(I also don't quite understand how you're testing and validating your build system for your laptop without periodically wiping it and reprovisioning it -- and once you start considering things like that I definitely don't have enough time for all that)