Yep, been in the same boat π. Was an LTS fan for a long long time till I realized... this shit ain't worth it π.
Everthing there is out there in 99% of the cases compiles against latest libraries. And well, LTS is just... lagging behind π€·. So, you solve one lib dependcy and then, bam, another one pops up... OK, solved that one, bam, another one π... it just gets frustrating to compile stuff on LTS.
And then you get all sorts of errors from the package manager cuz you did the unthinkable - install latest libs on an LTS distro.
LTS is good for one thing only nowadays - servers.
That might also be a general network drivers vs. kernel version problem as well. I've had that on some Ubuntu falvors on various cards, it isn't specific to just wi-fi, it happened on lan as well (just disconnects for a few ms and then connects again).
And yeah, one of the many reasons why I usually buy second hand hardware as well. One, it's a lot cheaper, two, drivers for Linux are usually not a problem π.
Yes, if it's on 5 to 10 year old hardware.