I wish they weren't a conceptual leap to figure them out. I fought decorators too (and I still do at times) to the point of never writing them.
I'm not here to tell you that you should use them, but here's the pattern I use with baker. If you don't use baker, it makes my tests so much cleaner that I didn't need TestCasts's setup and tear down methods anymore. https://micro.webology.dev/2024/02/05/how-to-test-with-django/