> Manjaro

That's your problem right there. EndeavourOS is also a beginner-friendly Arch derivative but less breaky.

> Wifi to work ootb

I definitely feel you on that one, it's just the luck of the draw sometimes... If you haven't considered it, in some laptops the wifi module is a replacable mPCIe or m2 module and if that's the case, more compatible replacements shouldn't be hard to find for cheap or salvaged from broken laptops.