I tested NixOS and it is very difficult to use as an intermediate begginer*. Very few apps by default, no graphic app store, vim is replaced by nano, etc.
Not saying is bad, but PG should add a warning that this is an OS for advanced users only.
*This source even say the distribution is Expert level.
The only recommended beginner distro is Fedora. Also, those who plan to use a distro should research it first, thus learning what they are getting into. PG is not a Linux distro site, so IMO, it is not necessary for PG to describe the skill level of each distro.
Also nano is easier to use than vim IMO…
IIRC the target audience of Nix is developers (if you look at the choice of words on their websites). The OS was meant to be repeatable on various compute platforms to test code on its commonly encountered hardware.
As a side effect of reproducibility of their code, you can be sure that your base NixOS and my base NixOS is the same and would execute code the same. You can sandbox apps but again, only as a side effect of their intended use case of running and testing code on various things. All their feature are also good for privacy and security. It wasnt made around a workstation use case like the Desktop Linux are.
As a NixOS user, Id place it alongside something like Alpine, which I also use, both being a bit tougher to learn and use than Arch. Id never recommend any of those distros to someone who isn’t already familiar with them and doesn’t want to spend some time learning how to use them
OpenSUSE (another PG recommended distro) is no more difficult to use than Fedora.
Sure but Fedora is the only one explicitly recommended for beginners: Desktop/PC - Privacy Guides
This isn’t a very good argument , if you are recommending something , its better to explain all the pros and cons to the user including to whom its more suitable/intended for.
For example there are subheadings for “Anonymity focused distros” -(whonix , tails) and “Security based distros” (qubes , kicksecure) which atleast inform the user that these distros are not focused on the “ease of use” rather on anonymity and security , so there maybe compromise in the convenience of using distro as a regular machine.
Currently nixos is under “Immutable Distributions” section but doesn’t mention for which set of users its more suitable for - power users or expert level users.
Think from a users point who has just stumbled upon the website for the first time and has very little experience with linux or perhaps have just used ubuntu before. They can’t judge from the description if its intended for them or not, and may only realize this at a later time, when they try to install it.
I can understand that a full review of a distro would take its own page altogether , but atleast users could be informed of the skill set required or direct them to some other detailed knowledge baseabout a distro before they make a choice for a distro.
Other services/products that PG recommends are usually straight forward and doesn’t require much technical knowledge from users part , so this section becomes tricky to add.
That makes sense to be honest, a link to a knowledgeable website to learn more about Linux distros could be useful.
Its way more prone to breakages, especially if you’re using DEs other than gnome or kde
I wouldn’t say so, because it has Snapper integrated so you can always roll back a broken system.
For beginner distros, you shouldn’t have to roll back though.
Ive heard a lot about nixOS, havent used it, nor tested it, so cannot say anything about it, yet alone (not) recommend it.
Agreed, I had used Fedora before I use openSUSE. openSUSE Tumbleweed is easier to use due to being a rolling release distro, which has all the latest packages on the official openSUSE repo when I need it.
Moreover, Fedora doesn’t support running unsigned kernel module, unlike Ubuntu and openSUSE that you can just modprobe once and be done with it, instead of having to go through the lengthy process of signing the module yourself. Fedora might be a distro for something else, but it’s definitely not an easy distro to use, not even close.
I broke Fedora in just 3 months of using it (somehow, I couldn’t update Vivaldi even though I had the repo enabled). And I feel like I wouldn’t feel as safe on a fast pace distro without snapshot and rollback systems OOTB. I mean OOTB should contribute to the user friendliness of the distro.
openSUSE Tumbleweed has not break on my system (yet), with a lot of configurations and a ton of the usual system upgrades for more than a year now. It’s rock solid, at least, from my experience.
Can say same thing about AlmaLinux 
Using it on multiple servers (both physical and VM) only, so no experience with desktop (though I assume its same/very similar). Just like you, tons of custom things (apps, configs, etc). Absolutely rock solid distro. Although its definitely not for beginers.
I just remember that I tried out AlmaLinux 9 as well, a few days ago, using the init image in Distrobox (using podman as the container manager). I failed to launch a GUI app, as it complained about missing X display. So, I called it a day and do something else 
Not a good experience for me.
Usually, I use Arch’s official Docker image for my containers. I think Arch is great for container usage, as it always has the vast amount of packages, and the latest ones at that.
@archerallstars question is how you were trying to connect with container? Directly via ssh tunneling or using some remote desktop software like x2goclient? Was there some firewall installed? What were the rules of this fw?
As I said previously, Alma is great distro, especially regarding stability. But: it will get as stable as root wants it to be; I mean, its completely up to you how much (to what extend) you make it stable, and how you secure it. Because defaults are far from being production ready.
All this makes Alma not for everyone; it definitely requires (sometimes very) indepth knowlege of how system is built and works, but, as soon as you will configure it properly, the full potential of this beast is unhidden; trust me @archerallstars, Alma is a beast; far better than Ubuntu Server even.
If you are interested in experiencing Alma 9 via ssh on physical server, just shoot me a PM and we will arrange things
I did it with Distrobox. The app uses podman, docker or lilipod to create containers. Any GUI app that could run in the container works with Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, and openSUSE images (could be more) in Distrobox without having to do anything special. In fact, Distrobox even uses GPU acceleration by default for Intel and AMD GPUs. NVIDIA GPUs need --nvidia flag.
I use it for some of my apps that I want to clone (have a different user profile/config), or for apps that just don’t available on my distro officially. For example, I install the official build of mpv (for Arch) in Arch container, then export the app inside the container to my system. It works flawlessly. I set my default video player to mpv that runs inside the container with hardware acceleration and all. Others wouldn’t know that it’s containerized.