I've tried many different distros (Ubuntu, Arch, Fedora, OpenSUSE, etc) and I actually find it much harder to get things done with Ubuntu or Debian than I do Arch or other lightweight distros like Alpine. The reason is that I often have to (or want to) do things that aren't supported by Debian or Ubuntu because it either requires using very new versions of software or it requires modifying a bunch of system configuration files. When you try to do that on Debian/Ubuntu you'll quickly run into problems because you're doing something outside what they expect you to do. Everything is hidden behind a big layer of abstraction (like a maze of symlinks and custom patches, etc).
So, you may find things like Pop! easier to get things done with because you're ok staying within the realm of what they support, but once you try to do something outside that, I guarantee you will quickly get very frustrated.