I’m like you, started Linux with v0.99, downloading on floppies at university, installing on 486, installing X11, drivers, etc. It was fun at the beginning, I was young, had time, I was a “LFS” guy, always recompiling everything and all, and it was time consuming, and boring, and slow at the time!!! Then I basically use Debian (Ubuntu, Mint, now MX for 6 years at least) for 20 years… it works, I’m ok with it.
Yes I tried Arch, the low level install, it reminded me of my LFS time, but now I’m an old coot and I don’t have time for this shit 😆