Nvidia-dkms needed for patched kernel... how to proceed?

Yes, as mentioned in OP I’ve seen some advice to not mix Arch packages with Manjaro. Do you have an opinion on this?

Agreed that beta isn’t preferable unless you need it (which I probably don’t), but nvidia-dkms non-beta isn’t available via AUR, so as you say, I’d need to go with the Arch package.