From installing applications to changing my background.
One terrible experience I had was when Windows did something to the Linux bootloader and I had to try work out how to fix that, but I can't really blame Linux for that.
Honestly I am so much more productive on Pop than on Windows. I can spend more time actually doing my job and less time manually creating PATH variables for every package I install. As a Web developer Windows is a disaster.
I don't see how this is a Windows issue. Windows, just like Linux, provides the capability to update the PATH both per-user and per-computer; many tools use it and work. NodeJS is a popular such tool that adds its bin folder to the PATH. If a tool isn't updating its path, then it's on the tool's installer.
This is all from my own past experience using video editing, audio editing, and image editing utilities where you usually just get a binary and have to do the legwork yourself.
Node is the exception, not the rule.