I remember when PopOS was first announced and everyone was like "terrible decision, just use one of the many distros already out there." Yet, PopOS is now one of the most popular and most recommended distros out there.
among enthusiasts on the internet possibly, but in terms of real world usage it is ubuntu/debian/centos etc.. followed by a long list of nothing.
there's always a new distro for tinkerers but five years later you never hear of it again, and when you invest into building an entire Desktop Environment that's supposed to compete with Gnome or KDE you're probably looking at that timescale before it's even competitive.
https://boilingsteam.com/which-linux-distro-for-gaming-q2-20...
those distos have undeniably won the server market.
But they also don't really care about the desktop market as a result.