Focus on what you're going to use the laptop for and choose your hardware accordinly. Linux will work great as long as your hardware is not unsupported. So don't worry about that at all.
As a genera rule avoid Nvidia. Also google the fingerprint sensor and wifi model before buying. General advice like "Thinkpads are fully linux compatible" is rubbish. Take your time to Google all idiosyncrasies of your desired model.
Maybe this can be achieved by doing this:
1.Connect to ProtonVPN on your exit node machine
2.Create a vm inside that machine
3.Install Tailscale on the vm
4.Use it as an exit node
Beatbump looks amazing thanks for sharing!