I can’t speak from personal experience but I would recommend this video.
https://youtu.be/nCSs4CbxZHk

Luckily we have business assigned Windows laptops and most of my work is done through web apps so mainly I have Teams, Outlook and Edge open. That way I get to have minimal Windows annoyances.

I’m using airsonic, a foss alternative to subsonic. It can have multiple accounts and shared playlists

I use bandcamp regularly, although i tend to just buy and download from the webpage, and then I let beets organise and copy the files into predefined directories. It also can do zip files.

From what I’ve heard of seen in the Linux community music production on Linux is not easy. There is a fair amount of tweaking to get audio working and connecting instruments.

As others have commented, stick with the Mac.
I recommend installing proxmox on it and run the apps you want. You can run pihole in a VM.
Do you need a NAS? Not really, but if you have cash available maybe get a used tower, use the disks you have and install TrueNAS. And this will only cost you max €200

Lot’s of great answers already. I’ll just had my thoughts and hope it helps.
Choosing a Linux distro is fucking hard, but the good thing is that you already have a DE (Desktop Environment) that you like, KDE Plasma (KDE is the community, Plasma is the name of the DE) and it’s my favorite.

1 - Manjaro was my first distro for daily use. I would not recommend it, i don’t think it’s stable enough to get into linux. Would not recommend any Arch based distro.
2 - OpenSuse is an old distribution, but not beginner friendly, so maybe not a good idea to dip your toes into it.
3 - Fedora is well established with lots of documentation, a big community and a 6 month update release model that should give you the newest features very fast while still maintaining stability. I don’t recommend the Atomic distros. If you’ve already installed and it works then stick with it for a while.

There are also the Ubuntu based distros like Kubuntu, KDE Neon or Tuxedo OS. Ubuntu has probably the largest user base, so documentation is abound everywhere regardless of the distro you pick.

You’re already testing out different distros, try to daily drive for a month and read up on what makes them different. In general it’s how to install software, the release model (“Long Term Support” or “Rolling Release”) and the core system. Apps are installed on top of the system and right now come in a variety of formats. I strongly recommend that you enable Flatpak on the distro you chose and use the Discovery app for software management.

Edit: Added “Tuxedo OS”

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Font_configuration#Disable_bitmap_fonts
Check out this section. You can enable the fonts you want to have bitmap enabled

https://www.alpinelinux.org/about/ Check out Alpine. Might just be enough for what you want

Could have been disabled by the vendor. My partner has an Acer with the same issue.

I agree.
If you’re going with USB maybe check this list (it’s from 2021, which should serve very well) https://www.fosslinux.com/46681/linux-compatible-wireless-network-adapters.htm

I agree. I think OP should try another shell first. That will impulse the use of the terminal. I’m using alacritty because it stuck and the updates are minuscule, but I’ve recently moved to fish and have it on desktop and server.

https://konstakang.com/devices/rpi4/LineageOS20-ATV/

Maybe this might be something to consider

Fedora KDE would be my suggestion

I think you’re referring to the “file picker” window. i think qBittorrent is using Dolphin as the file picker and as everyone else commented already you can get the same behavior if you use the “Details” view. Go the settings on Dolphin and tick the Expandable option

Alternatively, you can add the Folder panel (F7) and have the same functionality while having a “Compact” or “Icons” for the files

I’ve been following her for the past year, it’s a pity she doesn’t have a one time contribution scheme set up. I also can’t support everyone but judging from the donations on KDE people do tend to give small amounts and it really helps. Gonna try to contact her and see if she can accept something like that

I’ve been using the Asus BT400 without any issues in different distros. But I’d always recommend a cable mouse if you have a stationary setup

NixOS is the sort answer. It’s reproducible across hardware. But I’ve never tested it.