> For my development needs I prefer Debian Stable and install the dev tools locally in my home directory rather than using the packaged versions.
At that point you end up manually doing the job of a package manager.
Either you want the package manager to expect to manage everything or you don't, pick a side.
I want a system that's better at playing nice between system-managed and developer-managed packages. Distributions that stick closer to upstream (e.g. Slackware, Gentoo, or especially FreeBSD with the built-in ports system) are better than Debian for developer machines IME.
For my development needs I prefer Debian Stable and install the dev tools locally in my home directory rather than using the packaged versions.
Since I don't share those boxes, it works well for me. I keep up with the frequent Android Studio / VSCode updates that way.