Zorin OS 16 is what a Linux desktop distribution should be

That includes stuff like firmware for peripherals. So distributions further down the chain tend to include that stuff, so if you prefer to be on the cutting edge and aren't a purist about your distribution, you pick something else.

Or do you somehow believe that only a 5 word motto should explain everything to you?

I love both Arch and Debian, but I usually use them for very different things.

- X11 model is broken, people are working on Wayland to replace it, let's write an entirely solution (Mir)

- GNOME2 is working too well and people are too happy with it, let's produce a desktop environment full of bugs at least for the next 4 years (Unity) instead of fixing bugs and performance issues in GNOME3

- Package managing is just a little too much reliable, what if we forced `apt` to install random snapcraft packages instead of the intended deb packages?

To get a bit of historical perspective, Ubuntu copied what worked really well with Mandrake/Mandriva: a user-friendly user interface. But they copied it to extinguish all alternatives, which mostly worked. Nowadays, Ubuntu is only good if you can get commercial support ($$$$) to fix everything they break.

I actually use it on my laptop I'm typing on. I installed it because it was basically ubuntu and I didn't feel like configuring themes at that time, and I didn't really care.

However, I have long decided I should just install Ubuntu since there is no point at having another actor I need to trust in the chain, even though I need to install so many things from source anyways just because ubuntu repositories are not always bleeding edge enough for me. Problem is, I was so causal on my install that I did not notice the default Ubuntu install does not separate out /home partition, so I need to copy all my date to an external disk to upgrade ... You get the picture.

There is nothing here other than something somebody who either did not care enough or did not know enough would be decide to use and add the risk of another upstream source they aren't vetting, and actually they lock some things out and you need to use alternate repositories to install them. Most repositories are just Ubuntu repositories otherwise. They do not use their own other than for a few things. But they sell a pro version, so their own motivation is simple - to be a small business.

There's established ways to install those. Some are language-specific (python's virtualenvs) while others are system-wide (guix/nix/flatpak/snap/appimage/0install). If you have a more precise question about how to setup/package a specific project, feel free to ask.

> The problem is that I (and lots of people) are dependent on NVidia, so we are dependent on OSes which are supported by them.

I'm sorry for you, but we can't really blame that situation on the free-software ecosystem. If our governments and police were more concerned with multinationals (Nvidia in this example) exploiting people than with poor people stealing food or squatting abandoned houses, maybe there could be a justice on this planet.