I had problems with Manjaro, would not recommend it, and now use EndeavourOS.

That said, you did a fantastic write-up here. Really well done.

I don’t need EOS and Arch to merge. I would be happy if Arch would just include yay or paru in the main repos so you could use the AUR out of the box.

The problems with Manjaro are not just people using non-stable branches or even project governance ( though that had unfortunate moments ). The biggest issues I had were the disagreements that Manjaro had with the AUR due to missing or outdated packages. As you point out, these packages are merely delayed. However, the decisions made about system state today can carry forward into the future and are not always unwound once the core packages finally update. I had issues with pamac as well where it would install old packages instead of new ones unless I cleared the cache all the time. Maybe that was somehow my fault. I use plain old yay and paru now with the occasional pacseek for good measure.

Manjaro is still a good looking OS though. I think most people prefer the green to the purple in EOS. Lots of people love the look of Garuda but, for me, it is too much.

Again, really nice write-up. I hope Manjaro continues to serve you well.