Just need to find the right distro. I can't stand Ubuntu because it has too many commercial interests attached and its bloated but it's the safest choice because its the most battle tested. The first thing I notice about Manjaro is that their website layout doesn't work on mobile, call me superficial but it makes me question their attention to detail.

> I can't stand Ubuntu because it has too many commercial interests attached and its bloated [...]

But instead you use macOS?

Yeah, it's got less cruft than Ubuntu. Apple doesn't need to put adware into their OS because they make enough money from selling hardware and appstore commissions.

But what they do do are things like restrict audio and video APIs so that users can’t record the iTunes movies that they purchased.

Try Manjaro. I've switched from Ubuntu to Manjaro a few months ago and I don't think I'll ever look back. Latest kernel and Gnome version make a huge difference in performance and stability (that was the main reason I switched, Ubuntu desktop kept breaking for some reason) and Pacman is a dream. I used to just apt update everything, which was nice, but now with snaps you don't know what you get and you sometimes need to download some deb or add a repo. Pacman has everything (when enabling AUT) and I haven't even touched the terminal for it, because the UI is so good.

You should give it a shot :)