I use Flatpaks in Kubuntu no problem, don't think I have any Snaps installed

Not op, but I use Ubuntu because I will need a job at some point and want to use something relatively marketable.

Snaps are annoying, I tried to use them once for something and then have basically ignored them. They aren't hugely core as something in windows would be.

In my opinion Snaps are superior in terms of design and functionality than Flatpak. In practice, there are many poorly implemented snap packages. There were annoying bugs with the snap system for a long time like the update/close app notification. There's not enough features for holding snap updates. And there isn't built-in support for multiple repos. I like Snap but there have been legitimate problems with it (along with a lot of illegitimate ones) and the mindshare has shifted to Flatpak, which albeit inferior, fulfils most of the Snap use cases. In the end the social infrastructure is more important than the exact technology and that's much stronger around Flatpak. I use both on Ubuntu and only Flatpak on Debian.

If it matters, I'm a senior software guy who's used Linux professionally for many use cases for 10-15 years. Been personally using Ubuntu since 2005. Am switching new machines to Debian because Canonical is planning to do IPO and enshittifaction would inevitably follow. Not because of Snap. 😅

You don't need Ubuntu Pro to get updates on 22.04 LTS. Without it you're getting the same type of updates 12.04 was getting, for the same period of 5 years. The main repo gets security patches from Cnonical, the community repos get patches from the community. Same as it's always been. With Ubuntu Pro, you get additional security updates for the community repos done by Canonical, like they do it for main. In addition you get additional 5 years of support for 10 years total. And apparently there's now yet additional 5 that extends it to 15 but I haven't read what that's about. So for a user that doesn't care about Ubuntu Pro, nothing has changed. For the user that wants to stay on 22.04 till 2032, Ubuntu Pro is an incredible deal. This kind of support does not exist in Debian. It can be provided by a commercial third party for a price.

Respectfully disagree. Have been following many Ubuntu releases over the years, Ubuntu blogs and news sites, and the official flavours have always been showcased, talked about, major features discussed and so on.

Also switching between flavours has always been trivial even post-installation. I used to test-drive KDE on Ubuntu installs and GNOME on Kubuntu installs in the 2000s and early 2010s.