I’ve seen people suggest Ubuntu without mentioning Kubuntu, but it seems like most people (especially gamers?) prefer KDE Plasma. I’ve seen people complain about Ubuntu’s GUI and lack of customization, but then no one suggests them to try Kubuntu instead. It seems like people just don’t know that Kubuntu exists.
Also as an aside, people often criticize how slow updates are on Ubuntu/Kubuntu/etc, but if you enable the backports ppa then it’s actually pretty quick!
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports
Very slightly less of a usability nightmare, especially for beginners who cannot be expected to know this stuff, especially when actually user friendly distributions take these troubles off the user’s hands.