ive used gentoo a lot, a big downside is the amount of time spent compiling, if you need to install a lot of softwares frequently it could be difficult. (though you can use --binpkg options to install binaries and some packages have a packagename-bin variant, and flatpaks + appimages are a thing) if your software needs rarely change than it can be fairly painless.

the customization and speed are rivaled by almost nothing except for something like LFS. the package availability is great. you can also use custom patches easily as well as disable or enable specific software features (USE flags) . you can choose what packages stay at stable versions, testing versions, or even bleeding edge (-9999 version tags)

for a more “standard” distro, i would recommend artix. it’s an arch based distro with your choice of init system (as a gentoo fan ill recommend openrc). i used the graphical installer to get it setup and it was a breeze. due to not being source based, and having access to the AUR you can quickly install any package you want.

ive had it in my laptop for years and have been recently using it on my main pc for about a month.

additionally regardless of distro (besides immutable ones), id recommend installing timeshift for backups, it actually doesn’t require btrfs! ive used it with both ext4 and F2FS and doing a quick backup before an update has definitely saved me a few headaches.

feel free to ask me any follow up questions

that’s an extreme and impressive solution