The real reasons I use Linux are mostly out of convenience. For example, updating all my software and OS using one command rather than clicking on 50 updaters.
I like windows for various reasons but it's a constant maintenance chore. Linux is more like a stone wall.. set and forget.
I spend far more time maintaining the Linux machines, while my Windows box just works.
KDE Neon has been much better last year, but still every now and then some conflict pops up which requires manual command line intervention.
Clearly YMMV...
That said, I'm quite happy with KDE Neon and would most likely be quite content if I had to use it as my primary OS and didn't have any need for RDP. Sadly the latter is a showstopper for me.
The only issue I could sink time into is the lack of deep (S3) and that's completely an issue caused by Microsoft's capture of most laptop manufacturers (they have forced new hybrid sleep states that don't even work on windows machines).
Not saying it's a huge deal, though I do worry about screwing up the config changes, but it's a lot more work than what I have to do to keep my Windows machine running.
But even then, the same machine with the same programs on windows would require a lot more care to avoid rot.
What type of shady apps are you installing that is modifying boot settings?
A hardware and software config + the goal (print)- and a dialog pops up, offering your solution as a line by line shell script.
All this stored in a trustworthy DB and even complex problems could be plug and play on windows. Add a "support" button to finance the whole thing.
Voila. Year of the linux desktop.
That depends on which distro and hardware you're using. I use laptops that are known to work well with Linux and Ubuntu LTS releases. This way, I spend perhaps 3-5h a year on admin tasks and it's mostly easy stuff.
It's actually amazing how GNU/Linux allowed me to gradually transition from configuring everything (when I was a student: XFree86, custom kernels, ...) to using GNU/Linux productively with almost zero housekeeping effort.
You can even try Silverblue. On the off chance something breaks, i do an rpm-ostree rollback, reboot and the system is on it's previous working state. I could troubleshoot stuff If I want to but I usually wait for an upstream fix before I update again.
I wanted to like silverbluez used it on the homelab as a host os for a while, went back to a normal server in the end, way less hassle.
Depending on what you want to do, you use the appropriate version.
Indeed if one is not willing/able to climb the learning curve of this paradigm shift, then they shouldn't use it.
I get why maintainers want to push flappypacks, I just don't care, it's a shit solution that leaks all over your users. Find a better way to fix your problems.
You might want to look into something less unstable.
I've had arch running unattended upgrades in a Cron for years.
Worst case I have to find my USB stick and do some debugging, not that an update has ever broken anything.
There is some minor maintenance I run maybe once every 6-12 months to clear caches or fix up any configs that need updating but I've never run into anything that prevents booting.