to me this is a feature rather than an issue, whenever a package is updated in the package repository it’s super convenient to just update them from the same place instead of having auto-updaters built into all applications on the system. i guess that’s a preference thing though.
The US leans very heavily into capitalism, so passing laws that make companies less money probably isn’t what the government has as a priority unfortunately. Companies can make a lot more money selling you a new device than selling you a battery, even if the battery has crazy markups like most manufacturers that have replacement batteries available do.
I think the experience depends a lot on what ditros you’re using and your hardware configuration. I started out on Manjaro and that ran terribly for me, then i went on to Linux Mint which i liked a lot and that was solid, but since i got a new GPU i needed a distro with a newer kernel which made me switch to Pop!_os and that is also running great. But i won’t deny that audio was a bit flakey on Mint for me until i messed with it, seems solid on Pop though.