If you are in sciences, and happy to learn a new PL, I think you ll enjoy functional programming, even if it is not the most popular way. https://ocaml.org/docs/is-ocaml-gui-yet
Drito
The website looks cool.
There is nothing better than Xfce, if you dont like the desktop, at least Xfce allows you to customize. KDE seems interesting, but the last time i tried it, 10 years ago more or less, it was a bit buggy.
I prefer a glibc replacement.
Have you tried Mac OS ? It is probably more polished than distros and less enshittified than Windows.
IMHO distros share the same apps. The defaults can differ, the implementations too but the user can install apps that are on other distros.
I m not experienced but this video shows a way to use pass.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7t5M4FXqs9E&pp=ygUWZ2l0IHBsdXMgY29tbWFuZCBsaW5lIA%3D%3D
It is that software. https://www.passwordstore.org/ I still backup in an external dd but there are ways to store them online, like a git repository as instance.
I use Librewolf, I manage passwords with pass and rofi. Hoppefuly AIs will write a new FOSS web browser. I read here and here that the web standards are too big to be implemented by humans.
You can also install Alpine.
You can also use a light browser such as Qutebrowser.