I’m in similar situation. Didn’t upgrade from Mojave and like my system so far but wondering where to go from here. What competition would you recommend in terms of hardware+system?
Pop_os! has easily been the "easiest" distro to use for me. Zero-fuss monitor and screen resolution detection, which seems to be one of the biggest annoyances these days.
Pretty much the only thing I like about macOS is installing hammerspoon, and the only reason I use mac at all is work requires it, so take my preferences with a grain or two of salt
Even Windows 10 is much better now than Windows used to be. WSL can be great!
For hardware - take your pick.
Microsofts own line of laptops are pretty good.
But nothing really replace macOS for me. I've tried, and can get a long way with Linux or Windows.
macOS is still the desktop OS for me.
I'd more easily switch to Android from iOS than I could give up macOS for good! :-)