VK_EXT_descriptor_heap proposal is a good read.
vulkan has come a long way, to the point that if you use all the modern improvements, it looks almost nothing like what came out in 2016.

dynamic rendering and unified image layouts were my favorites as obviating the most annoying (and often pointless on modern hw) parts of the api. this one is the best though, i've always hated descriptor sets.

https://docs.vulkan.org/features/latest/features/proposals/VK_EXT_descriptor_heap.html