While I have no idea if this is another case, Ubuntu seems to have a tendency to carry Ubuntu-specific patches that may cause unforeseen consequences. I've had an Ubuntu patch cause squid to crash when the config had an empty line at the end of the file or something like that. And Ubuntu's "openbsd-netcat" requires an EOF marker at the end of input, otherwise it won't terminate the connection. The original "openbsd-netcat" does that. Ubuntu even patched in a parameter to make their "openbsd-netcat" behave like the original. Maybe they should have called it "ubuntu-netcat" instead. These antics, combined with the mess that is the "snaps" system, made me swear off Ubuntu and leave for RockyLinux.

This is their mainline channel delivered over a Personal Package Archives (ppa) channel (a repo that's just slightly simple to add/enable on Ubuntu); there are no patches on top of those.

Don't need to go that far afield, Debian is good.

If your issue with Ubuntu is Ubuntu-specific patches, I don't think Debian is a solution. They patch a lot.

I personnaly think it's too much mostly because I don't value most of the reasons Debian patches (I don't care about exotic architectures - I value conformance to upstream more than the ability to have modular and small packages - I don't care about having some non-free parts in my package).