I also had kde neon and switched to kubuntu. Its really nice and only has minor issues. I also tried opensuse beforehand, which was not a good experience, for example the sound did not work (which is a typical probl, at least says their wiki and the fixes were obsolete, but not documented that they were.) and as a final straw, YouTube video played without hw acceleration, even with codecs installed.
I had less problems with endeavour os (arch), which runs on a second rig as a steamdeck.
While using a top AND bottom bar on the screen. Thats exactly my humour. I am specific about that, because its what confuses me the most about many gnome distros when they so that. The vertical space is the most important one, don’t waste it with additional bars.