It’s super common.

Got the Kidpix design philosophy

Ubuntu Mate was my first distro and it helped me learn a lot, but I don’t really see a point in using Ubuntu over Debian. I never found it easier and you learn apt either way.

For me personally I install kitty terminal and integrate it with fish asap. Then I waste a bunch of time customizing it to my liking. My preferred text editor is Kate regardless of what DE I’m using and I usually get bleachbit for basic cleanup.