A lot of programs have an export button for settings a such. Useful for your launcher and whatever else has a lot of settings.
I don't like doing a full restore, new phones are a good time to clear old system files and crap.
For syncing stuff, I don't use most of the default phone folders for docs, music, etc. I make my own for everything, so if some update or app decides to do some shenanigans to those folder none of that is backed up. Only folders I don't make are downloads and photos, and dcim, which I still backed up.
If you don't want to deal with a syncthing or something automatic, you could try "Back In Time" on Linux.