Good call out I'll update the comments. From my reading it also seems like they take a lot from arch sources but don't really contribute so another downside here

Arch is a rolling release that gets the newest software once it's available. Ubuntus is Debian-based and it's also following the principle of stability over modernity so there's a big difference between how recent software you're gonna run on those two types of distros. But if you want to try the rolling approach you doesn't have to go directly for arch, you can use some Arch-based distro like Manjaro. I know there are also Arco, Artix and Garuda that are arch based but I don't tested them. You could use them, experience pacman and aur but without struggle of setting up arch and once you get comfortable you may want to give arch a try

Yup that's also true, I've hit the wall multiple times when trying to use vim/emacs. Now I'm in neovim and feel like I get a better understanding of buildsystems but I won't say it's something that everyone should start with. I don't know what the C/C++ intellij is though. On windows it's probably visual studio. On Linux maybe vscode but I'd say if op wants to try some morw serious ide then clion may be a better choice

There's a learning experience to it though. When coding in intellij I'm just using writing some java without deep understanding how the build system works ans what's done underneath. Setting up some nvim with lsp forces you to focus more on the whole process so I'd say it can be beneficial