I realized a long time ago that Ubuntu, Mint, and like almost half the distros out there are all just Debian-based. I can literally just turn one into the other if I want. To me they are about as different from each other as different system themes, all just Debian in various outfits. (Astronaut gun meme: it's ALL Debian?/Always has been...)
So I figured why not just go with the OG? I'm not a gamer, so I don't need the hottest new GPU drivers every week.
The dev spent 1,000,000 hours making the entire codebase their second language and knows it like the back of their hand, why can't you?