HVF does build with Nix (with an overlay), so the build experience doesn't suck. [1] for the base, then apply [2] to SLIRP if you don't want to use HVF's network adapter (which needs root). I'm happily running FreeBSD and Linux VMs on my Mac Mini with this

[1]: https://github.com/benpye/nix-config/tree/main/overlays/qemu

[2]: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/slirp/libslirp/-/commit/72713...