The prompt for your password is to prevent someone that happens upon your unlocked computer to take it over. Also I think knowing which commands can be run as superuser by a given user is considered a security issue, hiding that info behind a password prompt should at least help.
You can turn just turn the prompt off by adding NOPASSWD to your account in the sudoers file(s).
I would always recommend good old Debian for a mostly „it just works“ experience. You‘ll find debian packages for most if not all the things you mentioned. Alternatively you could go the steeper route and use an immutable OS like Fedora CoreOS or Fedora Silverblue for a more desktopy experience.
Hardware wise I‘ve been told the Intel NUC kits work wonders, or similarly specced boxes from Asia. You might get like 32GB RAM, a fairly recent CPU for <400€. Personally I‘m using a 12 year old Mac Mini until it dies, running debian.