I definitely like KDE desktop environment. Once you change your DE it makes almost every distro look and feel about the same other than package managers.

Pop-Os by default ran Gnome DE and is based on Ubuntu I believe. I'm not as much of a fan of Ubuntu because of the root company Canonical. Most people go down the Linux rabbit hole to get away from corporate giants. I tend to gravitate towards more of a Debian base.

Debian base I really like MX Linux because it has a KDE ISO, has a decent enough of a package manager other than just KDE Discover, has kernel manager, still supports X11, and is mostly without (has fallback support) systemD.

For an Ubuntu based my first choice would be Nobara Linux for all the gaming tweaks.

For Arch based I like EndeavourOS (hello, it's purple themed), and I have yet to try Garuda Linux.