It only leaves junk if you blindly install it. If you know all the steps you’ve done intaling it, you can trace your steps back while uninstalling. Having an RPM is all good and nice, but as you have pointed out, it’s not always available. So for this reason I have chosen to install the proprietary ones, taking the latest one straight from the source.
In my daily professional work I like to know what and where am I installing things. Hence I don’t shy away from a guide that explains all steps involved in setting up the proprietary drivers properly. Due to security reasons I like to get drivers from the source.
However I personally will soon switch form the Nvidia drivers to the open source one. At least to give them a proper test.
P.S. I’ve read quite a few bad reviews about negativo17’s repository including the fact that it replaces some Fedora libraries. On reddit as well (Reddit - Dive into anything). This are exactly the kind of security issues I am concerned with when installing from 3rd party repos, so if I have a go, I’ll better take the driver from it’s original source.