After breaking my hard drive with Bazzite not understanding immutability and trying to bypass it with permissions changes,I switched to Garuda as a beginner. It’s Arch based.
It has been easy, gaming just works, updates just work, it came with the drivers I need.
All this Arch hate needs to go away. It’s not what it was. I haven’t had to learn anything more complicated than Windows was.
I’d say you’re first job is to determine what you don’t want. Google the differences between distros and pick the philosophy you like. Some have corporate backing, some favor stability, some stay cutting edge, some are more community developed, etc.
I started with Bazzite (Fedora) and switched to Garuda (Arch). What got me to each was researching “best gaming Linux” and later deciding I didn’t want immutability.
I mainly just wanted it to work right out of the box, but now that I have it I also love that Arch is always keeping me up to date. There is still a lot of fear mongering about Arch, but Garuda was just as easy as Bazzite, which is recommended for beginners all the time.
I think Garuda is amazing, and recommend it wholeheartedly, but no matter what you choose there will be some learning curve, so pick something that sounds cool to you so you stay motivated to figure it out.
We have passed the point where it has to be complicated. If you choose something like Garuda, Bazzite, or Mint, it should be a pretty straightforward switch.
Coming at this from a different angle… You don’t have a pet that could have laid in it do you?
I would get ear infections as a kid with cows milk, goat was fine.
Garuda is Arch, and is also focused on being super easy, gaming focused, and performance tuned. It’s not immutable though.