Blank slate
A new project with a blank slate sounds like a good idea. You can configure everything - the build tools, the linters, the code styling. You can control it all. But you won’t. And you shouldn’t.
The hallmark of the open source community is that you can find someone else who has already been there. They’ve put in the time, the effort, the thought, and often the failures. And they’ve done it with more resources and more talent.
And you? You can just use it.