Debian may seem like the least suitable distro for the desktop, but it doesn't have to be that way. Debian receives critical security updates, so the only thing you're missing out is on feature updates (and fixes for a few annoying, but not deal-breaking bugs).
Still, there are many ways to use newer packages on Debian Bookworm. Below are some of them, ordered from most preferred to least preferred in my opinion.
Additional repos
This involves adding custom repos to your APT sources. Programs like Firefox and Wine support this. Some of these have a separate .sources for Debian Stable, so you can be sure you won't get any missing dependency issues.
Also, programs like Steam and Chrome only require you to install the .deb package they provide — the sources get added automatically.
.deb packages
This method may not handle updates via APT like above. Useful if you want a specific version of the package, most likely when the package provided by Debian is too old but the latest package causes dependency issues. However, some programs like Obsidian handles updates within the app by checking for updates every time the app starts, which breaks the all-in-one package updater aspect of a package manager.
Flatpak
This allows you to obtain the latest version (or a specific version) of a package easily. You may sometimes face theming issues, but usually you can easily fix it by allowing access to the necessary directories using Flatseal. Another advantage of Flatseal is that it's easy to set permissions and environment variables, compared to editing the .desktop file manually.
Since Flatpak apps are independent of each other, it's difficult to integrate one program with another. For example, you can open the current directory in a terminal from within Dolphin. By default, the terminal emulator is Konsole, but you can change it in the ~/.config/kdeglobals file. However, changing it isn't possible in the Flatpak version of Dolphin.
Flatpaks also update independently from native packages, so you'll need to set up a service for automatic updates, or remember to update manually.
AppImage
Like Flatpaks, but more difficult to theme and could take up more space. Sometimes, this may be the only option for download, or you might want to keep a program around whose development has been discontinued, like Yuzu. You can view a list of popular AppImages here.
Building from source
This method can be difficult due to old dependency issues. Most GUI programs will be available from one of the sources above, but some utilities like gtk3-nocsd will require building from source.
Debian Testing or Unstable
These are other flavors of Debian that come with newer packages. However, I've noticed that they're not as stable (especially Plasma and KDE software). I'd recommend sticking with Stable and using one of the methods above instead.
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