Yeah, I mean...that's what you get with most distros, honestly LOL. A fancy wrapper and some curated preinstalled software. They do have the Windows App Support that makes using WINE and Bottles like way easier.
I have installed on an identical system in this review (n100) and it runs great and looks really nice.
The article seems to mostly take umbrage with the marketing from the platform, which is fair, but not the platform itself.