Thanks for replying, I was hoping there'd be lots of responses here but I appreciate that you made some points.
- It is hard to automate with brew scripts? I haven't tried any other package managers, but maybe Macports would be easier to automate. What does this have to do with Apple's macOS though? Would you like it if they supported their own package manager for their users?
- I totally understand this, especially when their own APIs are often so poorly documented and behind the latest changes they've brought. I am glad they've refrained from removing their deprecated OpenGL version despite pushing Metal, but that isn't much to celebrate.
- do you really need to port stuff with Rosetta 2 onboard? Regarding bloatware, it is true that there are some baked-in first party apps that you can't delete. But surely you're referring to more than that? Apple usually cuts out old technologies and legacy software before users and developers would prefer, if anything. On the other hand, if I want to run a Windows 98 game on Windows 11, that might be possible OTB. macOS' UI is cramped I agree, quite bubbly and with too many slow and costly animations. I use the more spacious display resolution option because of that, which at least helps somewhat. And on bugs, sure. There are lots of bugs, more in recent years than in past years, and there always will be bugs. I had a very buggy experience with Ubuntu at my last job (still enjoyed it though). I don't know if I would have a smoother more cohesive experience on the right Linux distro but I would love to be surprised. There are ads for their own services, where are those appearing? When you first create your local user account, they push you to sign in and enable iCloud. I have never seen other services advertised except for in their dedicated 1st party apps on launch.
I don't blame you if you're having a bad experience, I like the idea of configuring a distro and DE one time, my way, and having consistency. Rather than chasing design trends and mobile UI elements. I just haven't found enough objective reasons to believe I would have a more powerful, cohesive experience on Linux that makes it easy to get right to work without too much configuration.