In reply to Neil White.

Neil, yes, that's how it works. If you install and activate the Gutenberg plugin, you can use the new features. For the most part, it will be a similar experience to core WordPress.

I almost exclusively use the plugin because there's always a lot of new and useful features that might not be in WordPress for months. If I recall correctly, there were 12 major releases of the Gutenberg plugin that went into WordPress 5.3. That's a load of features, enhancements, and bug fixes.

The one caveat is that, if you're using a theme built specifically for the block editor, it may not yet be updated to style some of the new blocks or block features. Whether they "look" right on the front end may depend on the theme on a case-by-case basis.