in_allium

I imagine KDE will work fine, too, and what I intend to run (I'm batch 9...)

This isn't a brightness autoadjust thing. Looks like your backlight is out.

An LCD screen that is actively displaying an image but with no backlight will still show a faint image from reflected light, so you can see an image in a lit room but not in a dark room.

The only problem with the AMD one is that I'm still waiting for mine.

I've got an older Asus AMD laptop (it's falling apart physically), and it is crazy fast. Zen 2, Zen 3, and Zen 4 have all been fantastic.