The existing command "nautilus" is a Gnome file manager, so its not likely to be available on non-gnome distros, so "xdg-open" is likely to be more portable, but is it doing the same thing?
The (expletive deleted useless) nautilus [man page](https://linux.die.net/man/1/nautilus) doesn't say what it does when run with a file path, does it open that file or open the file manager at the path with the file selected[^1]? In other words does xdg-open do the same thing?
Does it matter since "nautilus" won't work for lots of people anyway but xdg-open probably will?
[^1]: no I can't try nautilus, it isn't installed on my non-Gnome desktop and the file manager here when run with a file opens itself with the file selected, it does not open the file.