The apt repo thing is actually why I switched to Arch a while back. In Arch you have most packages being up-to-date by default (because you're on a "rolling release").

There is also the "Arch User Repository" which includes a bunch of useful packages that are easy to install, but with full transparency about where the contents are coming from (you can inspect the script).

They have even released an easy installed for Arch now that you can use, or you can just use Manjaro Linux. Regardless though, I really appreciate this distro for development after many years of using Ubuntu!