Podman is CLI and API compatible with Docker (except where differences in implementation doesn't allow it)
Running Podman as root is 99.9% the same as running Docker.
I have been running my homelab with Podman for several years and it is absolutely mature enough for a regular user.
Also, the docs are really good.
I only tried running rootless when i set them up several years ago and i was completely green, so it was probably me who was the problem.
Regarding podman-compose, Fedora repos has a a package that aliases podman -> docker and the regular docker-compose package, which i used before migrating to podman+systemd. It worked flawlessly unless i did networking shenanigans because Podman and Docker differs (/differed?) in so some thing simply couldn't be brought over.
Edit: i found the docker-compose and Podman alias thingies in a Fedora Magazine post.
However, unless you use docker-compose a lot for other stuff, learning to use Podmans systemd integration (also called quadlet) is very much worth it. They're just a really powerful combo and systemd has a ton of nice features for making stuff run and keep running.