Well, I've mostly only ever needed pacman but I did have to flatpak something once, which on Cachy is a nightmare.

None the less, the updating point is quite valid; I forgot how many auto updaters I had on Windows (that yes, I disable but they come back). I think the main thing is the repository method of installing is just superior when it has what you need and it's a shame it can't be done at the scale needed without more Linux adoption.

As for themes... well, I have no idea what he was trying to run that had such inconsistent themes but it sounded like he was using some very old programs. My experience with KDE differs from yours though; I was surprised just how many apps took my customizations. Granted, they won me over with icons for virtually every app I use, which is something I'm not even sure Windows could do legally (e.g. custom icon for Steam, slack, etc).

I agree with you on settings, though. My guess is it's more aligned with other OS' settings menus, but I personally like the old control panel more. And task bar? Well, given my system has a tenth as many things running in the background than I used to have on Windows, I haven't noticed Linux missing anything.

In any case, I also agree there's still room for improvement. The way I look at it, Linux has better concepts built into it that need larger adoption to fully get to where it wants to be. Microsoft has the resources and scale but wastes it on old broken code and enshittification. It's a shame, really.