Throwing my hat in the ring for PopOS! I’m in a similar boat of a set and forget OS, and this one is working well!
Probably an Android phone that has been degoogled or installed with another OS, is my guess.
All this computational power….on iPadOS 😵💫
+1 for Xmax but my recommendation would be the starry v4.
I don’t know the answer to all your issues, however, I have seen these distros been mentioned elsewhere in similar discussions so maybe have a look and see if they fit your profile:
I have not used the ones above, I am using PopOS myself, so throwing that hat in the ring as well.