I know about the successful help being an alternative to apple/google. When I start degoogling (5 years ago) nextcloud was impressive. But I talk about my own experience. And nextcloud doesn't work on their basics. Instead they're following every hype with an alpha app which doesn't get support when the hype ends (nextcloud social) for example.
Maybe they could fork owncloud again? Owncloud worked over years to get rid of php and released last year "infinity scale" its a single binary. You can run it nearly out of the box. And it is stable and fast. Nextcloud needs this, too.
The php part is something a newbie wouldn't easy success with. The alternatives I recommend are all easy to install docker containers, which are simple to maintain and no worries about the next release could break everything.
This is the way. Everyone can use what satisfies them. My arch experience was good, too. But after tinkering confs and setups, I lost my spirit to become a Unixporn user.
Nowadays I want easy to use setups. That's why I use debian for servers and fedora for clients. Last week I saved an old laptop from a friend before being e-waste. Fedora atomic was the chosen one and he is really happy with it so far.
Controversial opinion: you become a senior, when you let arch behind and use distros like debian.
I don't dislike arch, going step by step through the install process is the best way learning and no matter which distro someone use, the arch wiki should be the first place to visit for instructions or help.
I am driving away from nextcloud more and more. I would be back when they get rid of php and really develop even one plugin (the so called "apps") which isn't just an alpha version.
I don't see any use case for this bloated all in one monster with crap performance. Someone needs his files in a browser and overall synced. Use syncthing and something like filebrowser or filestash. Photos? Immich. Documents? Paperless. Music, Movies, e-books? Jellyfin. Collaborative Docs? Onlyoffice, cryptpad. Notes? Joplin, trillium. etc.
Both? A gunshot into the hemorrhoids?