I use Joplin + nginx WebDAV, works for me and was really simple to setup

The harm was already done

Gentoo for anything my I use a mouse with, Arch for everything else. I like Gentoo for the customization. For things where I want to run a service, Arch is my go to as it keeps working without drama. Anything complicated, Gentoo is better.

Or be the same but cheaper, but yes inertia is huge at the difference in market share

Yes, and very rarely, I have to pacman -S archlinux-keyring after it complains about keys and run it again.