Ubuntu and I never managed to establish a working relationship. I don't know why but I just don't like it. I use Linux Mint and i am rather happy with it - it just works (steam gaming, browsing, netflix, ides, ai tooling and so on). I install it, install my favorite packages, git backup my configs and that's it. The hardware is quite powerful and up to date and haven't had issues with drivers - except with obscure amazon dongles but those are a waste of money anyway.
I have the same expectation as you that a desktop OS should just work, particularly for basic tasks. I don't have time to hack around. I mean I used to be a mac os user - i didn't even have to install the os or chose the hardware it ran on.
But linux gives you options and alternatives to almost everything and _that_ can be overwhelming. Heck linux is not even an os, it's a kernel, and ubuntu is just _one_ of the many OS' built upon it. That wide range of choice is probably what you experienced with the usb stick (ie are you sure you chose a file system compatible with windows?). Once you get comfortable with this freedom you start liking it.
It's not like back in the day when you had to compile things or hack thousands of config files to make things work. Last time i used KDE was many moons ago when i had the time to compile it on freebsd just for giggles, today i just apt get install it and change my wallpaper. It just works. If a distro doesn't behave to your liking on a live usb stick you can ditch it and try another. I don't want to convince you to switch to linux, I am neither religious about it nor do i think it's the right os for everything under the sun. I'd probably need to know more about your workflow but i suspect everything you do on the WSL console can be significantly sped up and beautified with the right setup in linux. Would likely take a few commands to do so.
> a browser as an interface to the web is a Windows task for me.
Boy would i install openbox and firefox defaulting to full screen upon login for that use case :-)