Exactly, better to have latest driver and DE since a lot is going on right now in linux gaming.
So you want a rolling update distribution (like Arch)
I personally went for arch based endeavourOS, since I love to install my apps using AUR
For rock solid rolling release distribution, I would point to openSuse tumbleweed, and if daily updates are too much, you can go to OpenSuse slowEoll or fedora
If you plan to use flatpaks only anyway, then distribution does not really matter, but then you may have problems with some apps that don’t just work in sandboxed mode and you would need flatSeal app to set the right to read/write files outside of the sandbox. (Eg. wine/proton apps that need access to mounted .iso)
I use KDE in macOS theme, and now it does not at all feel like windows 😄
KDE can be whatever you want, but requires time to configure
Gnome is trying to achieve “it just works”
It just works meaning “use your computer how we think it’s most efficient”