I hadn't appreciated that ~/.<appname> was an anti-pattern.

Do you have any resources / references on the alternative best-practice, please?

I disagree. Nearly every tui/app I install these days still barebacks my $HOME. When you report it the macos bros glaze over with the "complexity" of having to figure out the right dir.

If they can't get that right after 23 years, there's no hope for .well-known/ (especially when they're vibing that tedious bit of code).