That's not right either. The --prefix needs to be /usr/local or /usr/local/stow/package-1.0, otherwise many packages won't find their own files. The prefix path will get compiled into the binary or configuration for a lot of packages, it's not just an install time thing.
Using --prefix=/usr/local/stow/package-1.0 is problematic whenever you have a package with plugins, themes or other stuff, as those go to /usr/local/share/package/... while the app is looking in /usr/local/stow/package-1.0/share/package/
Using DESTDIR and manually removing the usr/local from the directory tree is what I would consider the correct way, even if a bit annoying.
Either way, these days I would just recommend to use Nix instead, which is a much more complete solution for what stow tries to do.
I understand the compile-time prefix. But in some projects, you can override the configured prefix variable during "make install" without changing anything in the package; the install steps will just accept those paths, as a hack for shortening the paths, in packages where that works.
Using --prefix=/usr/local/stow/package-1.0 is problematic whenever you have a package with plugins, themes or other stuff, as those go to /usr/local/share/package/... while the app is looking in /usr/local/stow/package-1.0/share/package/
Using DESTDIR and manually removing the usr/local from the directory tree is what I would consider the correct way, even if a bit annoying.
Either way, these days I would just recommend to use Nix instead, which is a much more complete solution for what stow tries to do.