Making netplan the default breaks the Desktop environment and NetworkManager through and through. This is why it shouldn't be the default.

Netplan is already present in Debian you can install if you want to use that.

You can't remove snaps from Ubuntu, because you lose half of the Ubuntu software that matters when you remove it.

However, if you fancy Snaps, you can add it to Debian, as well.

> Otherwise, I'm not sure how Ubuntu isn't still good.

Any system doing things behind the administrator of that system is not good, that's the point. Ubuntu is now its ecosystem. You either buy into it completely, or don't. This is why many people doesn't like Ubuntu in professional settings.

If you buy into Ubuntu and don't care about Linux at large, it's a bearable product up to a certain point.