Running Gentoo you learn a lot about how Linux works at a deep level. I'm glad I have that knowledge I gained running Gentoo and it's saved my bacon a few times over the years.

But after about the third time that upgrading my system made it unbootable because I had missed some crucial step buried in the changelog or release notes, I also developed a deep appreciation of all the things modern distros handle for you. I rarely fear a dist-upgrade the way I did an emerge world.