I've started this process (from Centos 8). As a zfs user Ubuntu makes life much easier.
That isn't sad. I'd say EL is probably almost as bad as you can get, and Ubuntu is one step up.
I love EL. Its stable and just works. It is the best distro I have found for what i need.
Why do you think it is bad? And what is above Ubuntu and why in your opinion?
EL is annoying if you’re trying to install the latest of some Wordpress like software as often the system php and other things are out of date, and trying to update results in a frankeninstall. But if you’re trying to run an enterprise app like Jirw it’s amaze balls.
FYI, Software Collections makes the installation of newer PHP etc. easy and clean (i.e., doesn't interfere with the base system) on EL7.
(In EL8 this is done by modules, so no need for a separate SCLO repo. The upstream term for this is Application Streams).