I have been using KDE for 4-5 years on desktop by now and didn't have any big issues with it so far. I was able to solve every single issue I had with it using a web search or an LLM in a couple minutes.

Only major issue I had was because of cachyos (I think) or just some LLM commands I ran that broke my sound output so I had to reinstall the OS. I probably had more but was using other OS like EndeavorOS/Manjaro before and don't think it was related to KDE.

Also I just like the UI of it and can find any setting I want easily.

> What program are you talking about? You can customise eg Firefox on Mac, just like anywhere else, with extensions to look however you want.

I mean the Software Update thing that updates the OS itself. I also had issues like ghost updates for xcode tools with it (updates come even after I uninstall xcode tools).

> I'm trying to fix at least brew's Python performance a bit:

Nice!

For the future, it shouldn't be necessary to reinstall Linux just to fix a sound card. Pipewire et. al are a bit of a mess and sprinkle config files in /etc and your home dir. If it happens again start with deleting those and doing a restart.