you could add another layer of swap in between ram and disk by using zram. as it compresses swap in ram with a very fast compressing algorithm it effectively expands the ram size

btop makes the dedicated gpu turn on, wasting energy and disrupting its power saving. yes, this can not be disabled in btop, so it happily shows no load on the gpu. gee, thanks.

Ubuntu was once an okay-ish distribution, many many years ago. Then Canonical got rogue, made some very sketchy and irritating decisions (walled garden, snap, advertisements with Amazon, now advertisements in their package manager, … so much more)

Ubuntu is the bane of Linux. Use upstream Debian if you like apt; Linux Mint for an easy entry; Arch, if you’re quick of wits and want to widen your knowledge and skillset.