I agree with everything you said. If someone is new and wants to have a rock solid experience, then it might make sense to get a long term support version of the distribution that’s chosen. It’s a trade-off of shiny new upgrades for almost guaranteed stability.

When I installed Ubuntu on an HP laptop recently, I got a message that I didn’t have the drivers for my internal Intel wireless chip. It was at this point that I realized the laptop also didn’t have an Ethernet port. The installer told me to put the drivers on a flashdrive. Thankfully the error spelled out enough for me to find the drivers online. There were a few different versions and I put them all on the stick.

Bluetooth didn’t work, but I realized that was fixed by just enabling the service with systemctl.

People can go further than that and install a ROM for their phone that doesn’t have any Google apps on it. People can even use applications that normally require Google Play Services by using microG, which spoofs things. You can also root your phone with Magisk and use apps to block anything leaking anything else.

That aligns with some things I’ve heard about flowers. For instance, a flower might contain skatole in its aroma. In very small amounts, it’s pleasant. In large amounts, it smells like what it’s named for, scat. At a low level, it makes jasmine and orange blossoms better. At a high level, you have a shit smelling stink bomb.