Today on Linux Evangelism 101: using a single anecdotal experience as proof that something works right always.
High-end laptop lines (Dell, HP, Lenovo) have actually pretty good linux support, they are almost always intel i5+ cpus with integrated graphics which are all very similar. There is next to zero setup required in almost any case. This is known. The drivers are tried and tested. I've never experienced any random "power management issue". Suspend/resume/battery consumption/acpi is working perfectly fine. What else does qualify for "power managment"??
I've been supporting a team of 20+ people with these lines in a mixed environment, and linux since more than a decade was always basically plug and play.
There have been some quirks in some models, which generally required some tweaks in the kernel boot line, to fix issues with backlight tweaking.
Sure, but Linux really ought to shine on the low-end laptops.
But this doesn't save you from crappy hardware, which is why this kind of argument is a non-starter for me. How well does current windows editions work on low-end crappy laptops that sell for the lowest tier? Not great. These laptops have plenty of little issues on windows as well.
Maybe better than linux, because the drivers have way more work-arounds than linux has.
Have you ever seen the internal linux quirks table to work around buggy and downright horrid hardware? That's what you get with those. If it works at all is thanks to the patience of people that put in the time to work those issues around. I frankly do not blame linux if it doesn't work well with such hardware.