I’m on board that we need to become independent from big tech. As someone who is fond of the Mac user experience, from choosing hardware to how you navigate through apps, I need a guide to make the switch, so if you know of any great guides for Mac users, I’d greatly appreciate it!
Gnome Desktop will be the most familiar UI and workflow for you. Other than that, just take note of your existing software stack, and check to see which will also have Linux builds to install.
Really depends on what is considered nice about MacOS. Just had a new on-boarding with someone who really liked their Mac keybindings and it seems getting those dialed in is nicer (easier? better?) on KDE. I’d also generally gravitate towards Gnome for Mac users though.
As a piece of advice for OP: Accept the use of keybindings over the touchpad. Mac has done a great job and I have not seen a Linux laptop/distro combination that nails it. Search for the pain-points after switching and ask about it (kindly) on a community like this.
You must be using some junk touchpads then. I have two that work just as they would on a Mac. No issues.
For keybinds, there is the project Toshy which redirects keys to emulate Mac bindings. It has some issues but works pretty well in my experience