I'm not sure I understand your comment; OpenSCAD has functions like sphere(), cylinder(), etc. Most OpenSCAD models I have seen are built up primarily from solid primitives combined using boolean operations, just as you describe for the other tools.
replyhttps://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?title=OpenSCAD_User_Man...
Theres a better description of the differences here: https://build123d.readthedocs.io/en/latest/OpenSCAD.html#tra...
replySome of the differences may be in when you are trying to reference a face/edge to build off of, not just about the primitive function being used.
OpenSCAD works natively with triangle meshes. sphere() will create a spherical triangle mesh.
replyThese libraries on the other hand can natively represent a sphere for instance. This means that during CAD-ing you don't need to worry about resolution, that's a consideration for export only.