Well, since you may be forced to use it, here are some utilities to make it better: Rectangle Pro - 200% necessary. $10. Worth every penny. Cleanshot X Homebrew AltTab iTerm2 Oh My Zsh Karabiner Elements may be useful if you need macros/key bindings.
Also, this is cross platform, but giving a shout-out to Obsidian. With a couple plugins, it is a fantastic notes app that is markdown based.
There are plenty of things that are irritating in OSX, but there is a lot I like after using it for a while. Most of the irritations are gone with the above utilities. Unlike Windows, I didn’t have to spend a whole bunch of time debloating the OS and advertisements are not shoved in my face. I probably turned it off, but I don’t have a damn digital assistant shoved in my face either. Both Linux and OSX (which is Unix) have very clean interfaces. As someone with severe ADHD, an overly distracting UI will stress me out. A lot.
I do have some rather strong feelings about what they are doing with permissions in the Sequoia beta, but I also get what they are trying to achieve. iOS though is torture. I will say that for my iPad that it has improved a lot in 18, but I have 0 desire to ever have an iPhone. iPad is still ultimately hindered by the OS. The iPad Pro has an absurd amount of power, but the restrictions in iPad OS hobble what it is truly capable of.