The first time I tried ubuntu I did not install it because it felt like half of the screen space was used up by the sidebar, top bar and window decoration so yeah.

That little detail put me off of installing linux for like a year or so because I did not knowthat you can easily change stuff like that

I get why they do that, but I don't like the [letter]ubuntus because it gives users the wrong idea of what entails a distro. It leads to them confusing distros with DEs. To me, distos are more about the community and release cycle with some major technical differences like package managers. Yes, having different default settings and programs play a role in this as well, so you could be justified in saying MX Linux isn't the same as Debian Stable, but I don't think the [letter]ubuntus deviate that much from just installing the corresponding DE on Ubuntu.

Hard disagree. Their GNOME implementation is great, the distro is stable and snaps are fine. It's just not quite as libre as some people want.