I'm really comfortable with Linux, but as I mentioned in another comment I find a lot of usability issues there as well, at least on laptops.

Maybe I'm just getting burned out on computers, but I'm really considering going rms-style with a desktop computer, an e-ink display with i3wm and sticking to text-only. I really think we're regressing in terms of tech and ux and am finding it less and less tolerable. In my day to day I'm dealing with go, k8s, elixir, js, vue, various deployment and monitoring solutions, etc, I don't want to fight just to keep a baseline OS functionality uncluttered.

You don’t have to go full caveman. i3wm (I use xmonad), browser, terminal, and your favorite editor/IDE should do you good.

You only have all this software bothering you because you chose it over alternatives. (OK there are some cases where choices are forced upon us but I don’t see those in your examples)

But then you probably don't need the Creative Cloud apps for your daily work. That's the where the real challenge comes in.

True. If I did I’d run them in a VM (Qubes?) it a dedicated host.