Arch updates going bad is much more likely to happen if the system goes without updates for a long time. So I’d really not recommend it for a seldomly used laptop.

But regularly updated Arch is fine. Even if something breaks it’s usually easy to deal with.

One thing to keep in mind is that Framework makes it easier by directly selling in Europe. With S76 there’re import fees etc that make it less straightforward. Especially in case of an RMA.

It is an immutable distro, altough it isn’t image-based like Fedora’s rpm-ostree.

NixOS basically replaces Ansible because the Nix package manager achieves the same goals already (configuration, deployment, …).

But I agree, the work necessary to put into this non-standard distro makes it hard to recommend for a casual user.