> I wish I had a clear operating system to switch to for safety and the benefits that come with the AUR or the Nix ecosystem.

Can't have it both ways.

Your packages can come from a small number of trusted individuals who maintain the software distribution. Naturally, this limits your choices to the packages they personally maintain. If you need something outside of that set, you need to ask them to include it or source it yourself.

Alternatively, your packages can come from a software repository that allows internet randoms to push literally anything. That expands your selection to all software ever created, which includes malware since nobody's doing the work to filter that stuff out.

Arch Linux offers both paradigms. Make an informed decision.