I use Arch on my desktop because it brings in the latest of upstream libraries and packages I use, and has been very stable for my use.
I would think any of the major up-to-date distributions should make a nice desktop. Fedora, Arch, PopOS(I believe they still use Ubuntu as base but remove snap as default, and also give you a better GNOME).
May be if enough people move away, Canonical will get the message.
If Ubuntu forbid me to use apt or the service command (which I have been using for a very long time) I may move. I don't see this happening though.
I have observed down through the years bright people like to change things unnecessarily. I imagine this is what has happened with snap.
I am very grateful for Ubuntu. Over 20 years I have moved from Redhat to Ubuntu. I still have a CentOS running in production which really needs migrated.
As far as snaps I still have to install it on Debian because certbot distributes their stuff with it.