And that's ok! Like it's totally ok to be the os that it is. And it's ok that it's not for anyone. It's certainly not for my desktop atm. But then it's super amazing at appliance stuff. I've got home assistant on a minipc and truenas on a server. It's ROCK SOLID when it's deployed where it will shine.

The OS that comes preinstalled will always have the largest market share unfortunately. The average person is not going to install a linux iso to a usb and disable bitlocker and whatever else windows adds to make it harder to change the OS. That is before even setting it up and making sure everything works. It helps if you are friends with someone that is into installing operating systems that can help you but not everyone has that friend. The best linux can do is try and keep microsoft in line. Valve has been doing a lot of the heavy lifting in that regard. It is also why user friendly distros are so important. Somebody who thinks emails and the internet is the same thing is not going to go for Arch.

Learning any OS isn't a trivial task, but that's something people seems to forget a lot.
But I get why people would say "just use Linux", because if by chance you have the means to switch then why would you stay locked to a tool made by a company that doesn't care about you or your needs ? It would be counterproductive. (Also getting more Linux users would be beneficial for the Linux community, it could even be beneficial to everyone if that number is big enough to make Linux a serious competitor but that's more a distant dream than a close reality)