I also tried kubuntu starting out because i wanted a plasma desktop but found it a bit janky defaults wise. I settled on Manjaro KDE tho. Much nicer defaults, much more software available after checking some boxes in the software centre and choosing the nvidia drivers was relatively easy. (a neat menu to choose between the various options of open source or nvidias own stuff)
I really have a hard time moving away from debian (really ubuntu at this point) based distros because of all the support and howto articles written for this family of distros and the dearth of little doo dad apps written for the debian eco system (such as the thinkpad power manager or the debian specific implementation of that old os x app caffeine just as examples). Its really not based on laziness or close mindedness, but just that I want to get going with doing things on my computer.
I also tried kubuntu starting out because i wanted a plasma desktop but found it a bit janky defaults wise. I settled on Manjaro KDE tho. Much nicer defaults, much more software available after checking some boxes in the software centre and choosing the nvidia drivers was relatively easy. (a neat menu to choose between the various options of open source or nvidias own stuff)