@drscheffler so I never really considered the difference when I first set up HM as a standalone app...but as it turned out I was missing out!
Firstly, organization. It's a bit easier managing both configurations from the same directory, and without having to bother running separate commands to update HM and also rebuild my system config.
Second, deployments! I plan on spinning up several VM and remote instances using NixOps. This integration makes it possible to run build-vm and iso cleanly 🤘😎