It's a lot bigger deal to do the arch thing than to use a less-common DE if you aren't changing it a lot. (the arch thing being "if you were really 1337 you'd compile your audio drivers from scratch instead of complaining that they're not preloaded!" in my mind lol). Windows is a nightmare and I am glad I don't have to work for MS.

I've been less than impressed with that channel for a long time, so I didn't watch that, but I think it would help if I mention that my definition of n00b popular is for non-gaming purposes. Ubuntu (and to a lesser extent Mint, although I prefer to use that one) is universally understood as a very convenient and perfectly decent platform that's basically guaranteed to have people who've already used whatever software you need to run. There are more minimalist distros, which may be reasonable to use as a base for tweaking and optimizing, but if you want to spin up a machine in a limited amount of time and have everything you need as soon as possible, it's great for that. Doesn't even make you stop and remember commands, because you can count on the GUI way of changing whatever you want to be reasonable.

Ubuntu and it's derivatives were already very n00b popular.