i did have to roll back there

I think this is pivotal!

Updates can come with breaking changes. Therefore, the way a distro handles its updates is perhaps more important than its update cadence:

• Some choose to outright freeze packages and only come with security updates
• Others have (almost) excessive testing to prevent breakage
• Yet others employ rollbacks to ensure that the (eventual/inevitable) breakage can easily be deflected
• Finally, there are distros that fall on a spectrum in regards to their more radical state management in hopes of minimizing breakage
• (Though, I'm sure I've forgotten some other methods...)
• And, of course, we find combinations of the above employed on the very same distro/system

Sorry for my ramblings, but with M$ sunsetting W10, I feel there's a great opportunity for Linux to capitalize on this event. Yet, as your own experience clearly shows, the 'default' to recommend Mint/Ubuntu/Pop!_OS (or your average Ubuntu-based distro) isn't always a guarantee for success. And were it not for your insistence on trying out different distros, we might have 'lost' you 😭. Hopefully we will ever-adapt as a community to better accommodate the needs of to-be M$-refugees.