this is a cool theme! I'd use it!

I really like CachyOS:

1. Arch based a. Pacman package manager b. AUR c. Rolling release distro
2. Graphical installer
3. Extensive software repo. Things that I used to only be able to get as a flatpak are available in the repo, such as SurfShark VPN as an example
4. Super fast.
5. Updates are tested before they are made available and the delay is only a few days.

CachyOS or plain Arch

Glad you found the distro you like. The beauty of GNU Linux is that it isn't one-size-fits-all/none. There's plenty of options to suite individual needs. As for Arch, there's no need to fear it. There are plenty of Arch based distros that are geared towards gaming, SteamOS for example.

As a person who learned English as an adult, u can tell you that the word that gave me the most trouble early on was "weather". I mean these sounds are impossible!!

I use HereWeGo. it has traffic and decent search and POI databases. plus it has offline mode.

CachyOS with NiriWM. Cachy is Arch with none of the install drama. The performance tuning makes it blazing fast on older hardware. Installs with no bloat.

Niri is superior to Hyprland in my opinion because it's a scrolling tiling WM that is super intuitive and fast.

For server workloads, however, not much beats pure Debian. It's stable, well supported, and has a huge package library.

doesn't seem to work with Android Auto, which is the primary way I use it.

I use Magic Earth by Magic Lane. The company is based in Switzerland, the maps are OpenStreetMap and the app also gives traffic data, which OSMAnd does not support.

I realized this after posting my comment. it's not listed in the app description so I assumed incorrectly. been using it for a couple of weeks now and it's good!! the only gripe I have with it is that there's no way to turn off spoken directions. a lot of time I use gps just to estimate my arrival time and don't actually need it to guide me to the destination.

both weather and whether. I mean they sound the same. also "w" and "th" sounds are hard to pronounce.