> is there any Linux distro with a desktop experience that matches Windows and macos?

I guess if you look for one you can find Linux distribution with ads in start menu

> But despite W11 carrying around remnants of Windows 98 still, both of those OSes _feel nice_.

not to me

> Multiple desktops work well, nice gestures, simple installers and applications. Stuff often just works.

For me on Lubuntu my two desktops work well. Required a bit of googling how to setup, but it took me more time to fail at removing similar Windows annoyance.

Package managers are great, I have configuration of my packages in Ansible and single script run installs all my software except VSCodium and Android Studio.

Stuff nearly often just works.

Not sure what you mean by gestures.

> installing programs is a mix of flatpaks, APKs, and building from source.

Even that beats what I remember from my Windows days that required going through billion of installer wizards, with decent chunk of them trying to bring some unwanted stuff.

And my install is nearly pure install from OS packages with some minor annoyance for Android Studio and VSCodium.