"I miss downloading random executables and possibly infecting my OS" No I totally feel the nostalgia. :P
Seriously though, most of what I need is available in my package repo and software store. With flatpak, there's a plethora of stuff I can install.
If you're missing random exes, I'd like to know what it is you're trying to install, because that's like owning an android and complaining that what you want isn't lm the play store and wishing you could pull any old apk. (Which btw, you can).