>What benefit are you really getting from using mainstream distros if you find their choices to be so objectionable and don't agree with their decisions?

Well, that's an easy one: popularity = support. I dislike Ubuntu these days, but I run LTS on my work machines because no matter what obscure program I might need in the course of my job, it will almost certainly run on Ubuntu. Build instructions will target Ubuntu. Prebuilt .debs will target Ubuntu. Static binaries, or AppImages, will have been tested on Ubuntu. I get a choice between "install the snap, or build from source?" I can install the snap and get on with my day.

It's not inherently better in a technical sense, it's just overwhelmingly easier to swim with the current.