Sonalder

ZorinOS maybe ?

Bazzite is great for gaming !

Nobara too.

Bazzite still has experimental support for NVidia GPUs, you should use Nobara HTPC Nvidia ISO

If you don’t mind seperated tools that do well in their own :

• Zulip for chat
• Jitsi for video meeting
• And whatever calendar you want for the calendar

In my opinion OS is software, many people are working on it and I don’t think their work is worth 0$ (maybe Windows being the exception lol).

I disagree with you however I find it attrocious than when you upgrade (exemple from ZorinOS 16 to 17) if you own a Pro licence you have to buy a new licence (with a discount) and can’t “downgrade” to non-Pro (except from reinstalling it from scratch). I think the way the Pro is sold shouldn’t put upgrade behind a paywall.

Selling a (bloated) Pro version to bring cash isn’t necesseraly cancer it really depend on what you get and how you’re treated. And with ZorinOS I was somewhat disapointed…

ZorinOS or the recent AnduinOS can be very Windows like with modernish windows sex appeal as you call it.

Edit: If a gamer you could add Nobara with its own theme or bazzite with KDE.