I felt that I really started understanding how things work when I switched to something requiring more reading - Archlinux.
To get a running desktop it not only required doing all kinds of things I did not understand back then, it also provided great Wiki to get there. I still sometimes end up in that Wiki to quickly get up to speed about some tools or concepts.
And the fact that it is rolling release distro and was always running the latest upstream software version meant that frequently at least the UI part broke down, and that forced me to learn even more things. :)
That was only the beginning but now it feels like it opened many possibilities and career paths for me. It probably was a bit frustrating at the beginning but it is worth it.
On Ubuntu Server it will still automatically install bootloader, configure initram, full disk encryption, etc. And after installing desktop environment packages it will configure, enable and start all of the services automatically.
While it is easier and the result looks the same, you are less involved in the process and thus potentially learn and understand less.
Just try setting up Gentoo or Archlinux and then tell me that it was the same experience as Ubuntu Server. ;)
The skills you need to run Linux on the laptop aren’t particularly close to what you’d need to run Linux as a server, IMO, particularly Linux as a VM.