I've shared the same exact frustration for over a decade now. One of Linux's greatest strengths gives rise to it's biggest weakness- fragmentation.

"I disagree with x design decision, I'll make my own distro"

It's like there is so much rope that the community can't help but hang itself. The talent is spread across dozens of distros each with their own ethos and design direction. Every new distro hurts Linux as a whole at this point.