Everyone has their own preferences and experiences. Arch remains one of my top used Linux distros, maybe 2nd most used overall. Switching away from it was a great decision for me. For others, switching to it may have been great.
and people should not be recommending that their uninitiated friends start their Linux journey there
This is a good point, and perhaps one of the main issues. However, part of the blame rests on Arch developers, because for some reason they try to make it more accessible (like including the arch install script in the official iso). So the “Arch is intended for technical users” is less true, as per devs themselves.
Everyone has their own preferences and experiences. Arch remains one of my top used Linux distros, maybe 2nd most used overall. Switching away from it was a great decision for me. For others, switching to it may have been great.
This is a good point, and perhaps one of the main issues. However, part of the blame rests on Arch developers, because for some reason they try to make it more accessible (like including the arch install script in the official iso). So the “Arch is intended for technical users” is less true, as per devs themselves.