If your hardware ain’t working maybe there’s barrier to devs working on it caused by the designer/manufacture. Or we have not paid them enough for it to be worth their time?

I have not used Ubuntu enough to say I have a bad experience with it. I know of Snap being effectively a proprietary store (a dumb feature) and Canonicals has a bad reputation for being like the Microsoft of GNU+Linux.

Linux Mint offers the pros of Ubuntu but with the cons of like-Microsoft decision removed, why would I consider Ubuntu?

I’ve used Logical Increments in the past and found it very useful to meet a budget. Now I aim for “price to performance” sweet spots (since GPU prices have been crazy I’m now well overdue for a new GPU).

Both CPU manufactures are changing their naming schemes (to make it difficult to know what it is, I wish this was hyperbole). GPU manufactures also make some weird choice on naming GPUs (same-name GPU with different VRAM, when it comes to Getting informed on specific CPUS Looking at builds on reading/watching reviews of specific CPUs to get informed will likely be the best way to know what you aught to buy.

If you’re confident in your technical knowledge or want to then narrow down your choices then I would recommend watching videos from:

• (GPU, CPU, Case) Gamers Nexus
• (GPU, CPU, Case, Monitor) Hardware Unboxed and Monitors Unboxed.

For a casual overview of CPUs/GPUs video review I’d recommend something like Linus Tech Tips (even with the prior controversy).