Meanwhile I replaced PopOS on my ThinkPad a couple days ago, for some reason I had an increasing number of bugs and stability issues. I'm getting the impression polished/user-friendly distros just don't like me.
>I'm getting the impression polished/user-friendly distros just don't like me.
Very relatable. I always seemed to get into worse messes with Debian, Ubuntu, Manjaro, whatever... than Arch, Void, or Guix System.
What do you do when GDM breaks? Uninstall it, in my experience. These distros that are very shiny and preconfigured can quickly make me feel lost and not-in-control compared to the classic minimal wm (or wayland compositor) + assorted separate programs I chose on purpose and enjoy using.
Downsides to this situation are that it's tough to recommend a distro to someone new. It'd either be one I don't actually like/trust or one that would give them a hard time as a beginner. Also that I may come off as overly negative in conversations with people using those more polished and popular distros.
